The Russian invasion of Ukraine has driven up oil and other commodity prices in many countries, with gasoline prices turning into a topic of discussion around the world. However, as taxes are making up a big chunk of the gas price in the majority of industrialized nations, countries taxing gasoline at lower rates will still see lower gas prices in comparison. One example of this is the United States.
Even at a gas price of around $4.30 per gallon on average, Americans are still paying much less to fill up their cars than people in many industrialized nations, including other car-based economies like Brazil, Australia or South Africa. According to website Global Petrol Prices, all three nations were already paying between $4.76 and $5.42 for a gallon.
Europe has some of the highest gasoline prices in the world. Most of Western Europe was paying upwards of $6.00 for a gallon of gas as of May 2, with some of the highest prices being charged in Iceland, Finland, Greece, Denmark and Norway. Germany was the most expensive major European economy in terms of gas prices most recently, as a gallon was going for $7.97. Norway is an outlier among oil producing countries as it taxes gasoline at a premium. The country bases lots of its wealth on oil but has for many years pursued a plan to make its own economy independent of the fossil fuel.
Other oil producers have gone the opposite route, offering gasoline to its citizens for less than the price of bottled water. The most drastic examples for this are Venezuela, Libya and Iran, where gasoline only costs a couple of cents per gallon.
The most expensive gallon of gas included in the ranking, however, was being sold in Hong Kong at $10.87, which would typically cause filling up even a small car to break the $100 barrier. Eastern Asia was the priciest part of the world for gas after Europe, with prices high in India, China, South Korea and Thailand – all of which are major oil consumers, but not producers. Deep pockets are also needed in a few countries where weak government or trade structures have led to a hike in prices, like in the Central African Republic.
World regions with cheap gas prices included North Africa and the Middle East as well as in Central Asia and Russia. In Algeria, for example, gas costs only around $1.20 per gallon, while in Russia, the price was approximately $2.70.
