In the first six months of 2017, Italian households and businesses spent 26,5 billion euros to buy petrol and diesel for cars. Compared to the first half of 2016, there was an increase of 9,5%, corresponding to a higher expenditure of 2,3 billion euro. These are the data that emerged from the elaborations of the Centro Studi Promotor.
Despite a drop in consumption of 0,7%, spending therefore grew, exclusively due to the trend in pump prices.
For the petrol, the weighted average price increased by 8% in the first half of 2017, going from 1,423 to 1,537 euros per litre. The increase for automotive diesel is even higher. Compared to the first half of 2016, the weighted average price + rose from 1,248 to 1,389 euros per litre, for an increase of 11,30%.
As Promotor explains, the price of fuel is made up of two distinct components: the industrial one and the fiscal one. The former remunerates the oil industry and its distribution network, while the latter makes the State gain, being made up of a heavy excise duty and the proceeds of VAT, which is applied to the sum of the industrial price and the excise duty.
La fuel price growth it is connected to the trend in the price of crude oil, and necessarily the most important part of the increase in expenditure goes to the industrial component, which in fact increased by 1,983 billion in the first half-year. This brought overall industry and distribution revenues for the first half to $9,733 billion.
On the other hand, the increase in tax revenue was more modest (311 million), but the part that goes to the tax authorities of the entire expenditure is much more consistent than that that goes to industry and in fact reached 16,769 billion in the first half-year.
