In 2017, Romania recorded the lowest price in euro for natural gas for household consumers, among EU member states, according to data published by the European Statistics Office – Eurostat. The comparison that considers the purchasing power parity (ppp) – which is the value of a currency expressed in terms of the amount of goods or services that one unit of money can buy – shows that the Romanian price was slightly lower (1.57%) than the EU average.

The price has increased by 0.65% in the last four years

For the second semester of last year, Eurostat estimated a price per kilowatt-hour, with all taxes and levies included, of 3,09 eurocents for natural gas for domestic consumers in Romania, down by 2,21% compared to 3,16 eurocents/kWh, provisional level for the first semester.

The highest price was recorded in Sweden (11,25 eurocents/kWh). Four countries (Denmark, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands) had prices above 8 eurocents/kWh and six countries had prices below 4 eurocents/kWh: Hungary (3.65), Croatia (3.66) 75), Latvia (3.93), Lithuania (3.95) and Luxembourg (3.98).

Between 2013 and 2017, the price of natural gas to households in Romania, with all taxes and levies included, increased by 0.65%. In the same period, the indicator went down for all the other EU Member States, the largest declines in Lithuania (35.67%), Luxembourg (27%) and Bulgaria (27.61%), and the smallest in The Czech Republic (1.57%) and Spain (3.03).

The price of natural gas for household consumers in Romania excluding taxes and levies has increased by 8.7% over the last four years (S2 2013 to S2 2017) to 1.75 cents/kWh, while it has remained the smallest in the EU. At the end of 2017, the closest prices were recorded in Hungary (2.87), Lithuania (2.90) and Croatia (2.93). The highest prices were registered in Spain (6.92 eurocents/kWh), Sweden (6.15), Portugal (5.85), and Italia (5.58).