Good news for motorists: the refueling bill fell slightly last week.
While prices were at their highest since this summer, the latest government data, published on Monday, show a drop in the cost of a liter of gasoline or diesel by a few cents.
What relieve - little, however - the consumers, confronted with a durable inflation on the energy.
In detail, Friday, the liter of diesel cost, on average, 1.8873 euro.
A level certainly high, but down about six cents compared to seven days earlier.
Same observation for gasoline: the liter of SP95-E10 was displayed at 1.8996 euro on average, that of SP95 at 1.9299 euro and that of SP98 at 1.9878 euro.
Levels down by three to ten cents, depending on the fuel.
Conversely, the price of superethanol E85 - 1.1229 euro on average - like that of LPG - 0.9723 euro - continued to increase.
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The evolution of fuel prices over the past few months has been spectacular.
The price of a liter of diesel has varied greatly in one year: set at 1.54 euros at the end of December 2021, it soared rapidly during the start of the war in Ukraine, reaching 2.14 euros in mid-March.
It then experienced variations of several tens of cents in a few weeks, instead of slow and measured changes: a rise of 30 cents between the end of May and mid-June, then an even more marked drop until mid-August, example, or an impressive U curve between 1.91 euro in mid-November, 1.73 euro in early December and 1.9 euro in early January.
Enough to give motorists a cold sweat.
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From now on, the price increases are at least partly mitigated by the fuel allowance, granted by the government since mid-January.
But the prices depend in particular on the price of the raw materials, on the markets.
The barrel of Brent has also had a busy year: showing around 80 dollars at the end of 2022, it remained, between February and August, close to the 100 dollar mark.
It has since gone down again.
On Monday, it was thus close to 80 dollars, down sharply.
For IFPEN, the fall observed last week is explained by the fact that supply remains "
excess compared to demand which is slow to recover
".
It remains to be seen how the entry into force of the embargo affecting imports of Russian petroleum products in early February will affect prices.
