Good news for families and their savings.
Gas prices have fallen below 50 euros at the TTF in the Netherlands and if they maintain this trend, in the coming months they will drop drastically the gas and electricity bills. One is expected reduction of the 17 % for the price of gas and 25 % than that ofelectricity. The saving estimated for families will be of 600 € annually: 234 euros for gas and 363 euros for electricity.
La decrease of the prices is due from theeffect of the price cap which brought down the price of the raw material below 50 euros per MWh and even by weather conditions favorable with a milder winter than usual.
To explain this positive trend was the president of Nomisma Energy, David Tabarelli: “Maybe we have exaggerated with panic last autumn, but what matters are the prices now in sharp decline”.
Arera ready to announce cheaper rates
Arera, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and the Environment, is thus preparing to announce cheaper rates for those who are still in the protected market.
The gas tariff will be set at the beginning of March with international prices estimated to drop by 17% to 0,83 euros per cubic metre. The updating of the cost of electricity, fixed in advance for three months, is foreseen by Arera for 1 April with an estimated decrease of 25% to 40 cents per kWh.
Rates will drop to end-2021 values but it will still be double the average of 20 cents a kilowatt-hour recorded in recent years.
Already in January 2023 it had been registered a nearly 35% drop in bills compared to the last month of 2022.
Positive impact on inflation
The cheapest electricity and gas rates will have a positive impact on inflation that it should like this alight quickly under the 10 %. Excellent news for Italy given that – as Tabarelli explains – it is the "country most exposed, with its gigantic debt, to the increase in the cost of interest rates", a breath of fresh air for wages and mortgages.
Crisis over then? Not yet for Tabarelli who warns to be cautious in "declaring the crisis over".
For the president of Nomisma "International gas prices are always double the long-term averages and are almost 5 times the gas prices in the United States, where, for this reason, energy prices are enormously lower than those that households and, above all, businesses have to pay in Europe”. It therefore remains necessary – says Tabarelli – “continue to diversify, build regasification terminals, increase national production, keep coal plants still open and push for renewables”.
