Why are gasoline prices so high

Read more: 400.000 swedes require lower bensinpris

the Price of petrol and diesel has gone up in price by 12 to 13 percent during the spring. The reasons are basically three:

The Swedish currency has been considerably weakened in recent times. Against the dollar, which is the currency oil is traded in, and thus controlling for the price of petrol, the krona has lost 7.5 per cent in december and 23 per cent since January last year.

A dollar cost on Sunday 9,64 dollars. In January 2018, the price was 7,84.

Regardless of the currency fluctuations also swings the price of the oil. It depends in turn on both supply and demand, and external factors.

There is turbulence in and around the important countries like Libya, Iraq, Iran and Venezuela.

the united states has during the spring, removed the exception from the sanctions against Iran, which have been trading. This reduces the oil supply in world trade, which raises the price.

in Addition, have the oil-producing countries in Opec, together with Russia, introduced production quotas in order to dampen supply. The quotas were extended at the end of the year. The next decision to be taken in June.

Crude oil prices are now the highest since autumn last year, just over 70 dollars the barrel.

the price of Oil correlates, however, not always directly with the price at the pump. When crude oil prices reached a peak in 2012 – the cost of 120 dollars a barrel – the cost of petrol in Sweden of just over sek 15 per liter.

the tax Increases also affect the Swedish fuel prices, even if it's not something that had real impact this spring.

Gasoline and diesel are affected by three taxes: carbon tax, energy tax and vat.

2017 introduced an indexing mechanism, means to treasure every spring will automatically rise with the rate of inflation plus 2 per cent. At the beginning of the year raised the total petrol rates by 33 cents.

So it was allocated the components of the petrol price in February 2019, when a litre cost 15,06 sek:

• the cost of Production and gross margin: 5,35

• the Vat on the petrol: 1,34

• energy Tax: 4,08

• Carbon tax: 2,62

• the Vat on the tax: 1.68 the

the share of Taxes in the price was 64.5 per cent.

Unemployment rate

Gasoline and diesel prices are higher now than they have been since the 1950s, not only in dollars and cents, but also with regard to the rate of inflation.

But as a proportion of the median income in Sweden, the price has not been remarkably high in recent years.

According to a review of the years 1991-2016, the proportion has remained fairly constant at a little over 2% of the dagsinkomsten. The years 2011-2012, the proportion was a little over 2.3%, but in 2016 it sank below the 1.9 per cent.

Read more: So very true, the viral pictures of Sweden's high gasoline prices