Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh and Ivory Coast are the world’s third highest fuel oil price paying country in the world only behind Congo and Senegals, says a latest study report.
Among Asian countries, Sri-Lanka ranks 9th while Pakistan 13th, according to a recent analysis of Carmudi, a leading online marketplace.
The lowest fuel oil price country is Saudi Arabia, followed by Qatar, Nigeria, UAE, Indonesia and Ghana.
The analysis examined the fuel price and general affordability of petrol in eighteen emerging markets.
People in Bangladesh, where the average daily income, if counted in dollars, is US$22.74, spend a mere 5.3 percent of their income for a litre of fuel, it said. Global consumer demand for petrol has steadily grown thanks to low oil prices combined with economic growth, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
In 2014, global oil demand was 92.6m barrels per day and demand for 2015 is expected to increase by 1.4m barrels each day, to a total of 94m. “This phenomenon truly spans the globe. Gas prices have decreased from the pumps in Pakistan to stations in Senegal. But while most countries have seen savings, the price of gas differs wildly across the globe,” said the analysis.
In Indonesia, where fuel subsidies have been cut by the government since early 2015, most people are forced to spend over 30 percent of their daily earnings to buy a single litre of petrol.
In Sri Lanka, a single litre of fuel costs $0.96, taking up to nearly 45 percentof the national average daily income. Fuel prices in Mexico, the world’s seventh largest oil producer, are similar to prices in several Asian countries such as Vietnam, where a litre is priced at $0.92 and $0.97, respectively. Despite the similar prices, the average daily income in Mexico is almost three times higher than Vietnam. It takes 7.8 percent of a day’s wage in Mexico to buy a litre whereas in Vietnam, it costs more than 25 percent of the average daily income.
In Africa, it comes as no surprise that fuel prices in Nigeria, the biggest oil producer in the region, are among the cheapest standing at $0.46 per litre or 5.6 percent of the national average income per day.
Fuel prices look different for those East African countries with significantly lower average incomes. In Rwanda, where fuel costs $1.17, the average person makes only $1.55 per day. One litre accounts for over 75 percent of a typical daily income, almost a full day’s worth of work.
Fuel prices in the oil-wealthy Middle East are incredibly low, and that, coupled with the high average daily income, makes it the best place to own a gas guzzler.
Prices range from $0.15 per liter in Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest oil producer (average daily income $143.6), to $0.26 in Qatar, the world’s third largest oil producer (average daily income $382.6), to $0.47 in the United Arab Emirates, the world’s eighth largest oil producer (average daily income $170).
