Bulgaria tops the EU for how fast fuel prices are rising - up 34.5% over the past year, Eurostat says. No other EU country comes close to that jump in diesel and petrol prices.
The figures back up what small petrol station owners have been saying for months: fuel sales have dropped sharply. If the trend keeps going, many of them risk going bust and closing down, hitting small towns and villages hardest.
Georgi Radanov gets a pension of 300 euros a month and says he drives his car less and less these days. "I drive less and fill up less, because I can't afford it. The refinery here is Bulgarian, so prices should be lower for us, but they're not," he says.
Rosen Kalinov has switched to running his car on LPG because of the high prices. "Diesel and petrol cost two and a half times more than gas. It hits your wallet every month," he says.
A petrol station in Ruse has seen its turnover drop by 20%. Its owner blames the war Russia started in Ukraine and tension in the Middle East. "In smaller towns, petrol stations may end up closing," says Ventsislav Pengezov. "Every other European country took steps to bring prices down, and there the rise was held back. Here there was no cut in excise duty or VAT - basically, we took the full hit of the increase."
On the podcast "Business.BG", economic analyst Zdravko Pirinliev warns that the high fuel prices are already raising talk of a possible new financial crisis. He says the link between oil prices and the economy is direct. "When oil is expensive, it hits consumption, and that makes economic growth very fragile. History shows that oil shocks are often a warning sign that the system could break down," the analyst explains.
Petrol station owners see three ways to bring things under control, according to Ventsislav Pengezov:
- Regulators should crack down on unfair practices in the market;
- Taxes should be fine-tuned;
- The state should invest in oil and gas fields.
Fuel prices have held steady for a second day running. A litre of diesel now costs 1.96 euros on average, and petrol 1.69 euros.