The impact of the coronavirus emergency on gasoline and diesel fuel consumption is heavy.
In the first nine months of 2020 the quantities sold at the pump fell by 18.9% on the same period last year.
The contraction in spending was even stronger, which fell by 26.4%, i.e. by 11.5 billion, from 43.6 billion in January-September 2019 to 32.1 billion, and this is because the drop in consumption was accompanied by also substantial decreases in weighted average prices.
For gasoline, it went from 1,572 euros per liter in the first nine months of 2019 to 1,443 euros per liter in the same period of 2020, while for diesel it went from 1,481 to 1,340 euros per liter.
The contraction in tax revenues was also heavy.
Revenues for the tax authorities deriving from VAT and excise duties on petrol and diesel for cars fell by 5.6 billion, going from 26.5 billion in January-September 2019 to 20.9 billion in the same period of 2020.
These data derive from elaborations carried out by the Promotor Study Center on its database on the prices and consumption of petrol and diesel for motor vehicles released by the Ministry of Economic Development.
If we analyze the monthly trend in consumption of the two fuels in 2020, it emerges that consumption was substantially stable in the first two months to then undergo a strong contraction in March (-43.7%) and an even stronger fall in April (- 63.3%), followed by more and more contained decreases in the following months and by an initial very modest growth in September (+ 0.8%).
According to Gian Primo Quagliano, president of the Centro Studi Promotor, '' the rekindling of the coronavirus emergency will determine a new strong contraction in mobility and therefore in the consumption of petrol and diesel which could produce a drop of 15.1 billion in total expenditure in 2020 a decrease in tax revenue of € 7.3 billion ''.
