In the first days of March, car users faced the first increase in the price of diesel in the country, which jumped from 175 lek, a level that had remained unchanged for almost two years, to 179 lek per liter.
The rise in prices in the following days was unstoppable, as a result of the rise in oil prices on stock exchanges after the launch of attacks on Iran, which caused chaos in global markets.
On March 17, oil jumped to 200 lek and just two days later reached 214 lek. Although the government reactivated the Transparency Board, prices only decreased for two days to 203 lek, before jumping to 218 lek at the end of March. On average, a liter of oil cost 200 lek in March, or 14% more than before.
Despite the price increase, demand not only did not fall, but increased, proving that oil is a necessary product with inelastic demand (i.e., not affected by price).
Official data from Customs revealed that oil consumption in March was 35.8 thousand tons, up from 33.8 thousand tons in the same month a year earlier, an increase of almost 6% (see chart).
Market operators also claimed that they did not observe a drop in consumption in March, despite the increase in prices. The weak public transport system , focused only on buses, causes many individuals to use personal cars to go to work or to accompany children to school. Consumption also remains high for getting around on weekends.
Other data from the General Directorate of Road Transport Services (DPSHTRR) showed the same trend that the crisis in the Middle East and the increase in fuel prices have not affected the growing tendency of Albanians to buy vehicles , at least for the first months of the year.
In March, 7,891 vehicles were registered for the first time in the country, an increase of 15% compared to the same month a year earlier. This is also the historical record for new vehicle registrations ever set in March.
The same trend is observed for the entire first quarter. Apart from January, when registrations fell by 7.6%, in February they increased by 20.6%. In the first quarter, a total of 22 new vehicles were added to the roads in the country, most of which were cars, with an increase of 8.4% on an annual basis. 60% of these cars that were registered for the first time were diesel.
10 million euros more, just from the price increase
In March, consumption was 35.8 thousand tons, or about 42.4 million liters. To purchase this amount, vehicle users spent about 8.5 billion lek, or about 87 million euros, at an average price of 200 lek per liter. If they had purchased this amount at the price of 175 lek, the expenditure would have been 7.4 billion lek, or 1.05 billion lek (about 11 million euros) less.
In Albania, diesel consumption remains high, as the majority of cars circulating in the country use this fuel as fuel. According to data from the General Directorate of Road Transport Services (DPSHTRR), by the end of February, there were 1.06 million vehicles active in the country.
Of these, about 732 thousand, or almost 70% of the total, use diesel as fuel. About 210 thousand vehicles, or almost 20%, use gasoline only.
Around 84 thousand users have gas-powered vehicles, or 8% of the total. Although the registration of electric cars is increasing, especially in March, after the increase in the price of oil, their weight in the total remains minimal, at only 1.3%, with around 15 thousand electric vehicles circulating in the country, out of over 1 million in total, and another 8 thousand that are hybrids (fuel + electric)./Monitor
