The price of both gasoline and diesel oil increased by ISK 5 per liter at the oil company N1 yesterday, breaking the ISK 200 (USD 1.56, EUR 1.14) liter price barrier for the first time. Skeljungur (Shell Iceland) and Olís followed but at Atlantsolía the liter price for gas remained ISK 197.5.
From Reykjavík. Photo by Páll Kjartansson.
N1 explained the increase with a rapidly increasing world market price of fuel and the position of the Icelandic króna compared to the US dollar, Morgunbladid reports.
“There was an increase in the world market price last week and yesterday’s increase can partly be explained by it,” confirmed Runólfur Ólafsson, managing director of the Icelandic Automobile Association. However, he believes the price increase was unnecessarily high.
“Of course the government’s tax increases don’t help either. The gas liter is now ISK 60 more expensive than one year ago. The exchange rate and other factors also have an impact but the markup is comparatively similar,” Ólafsson added.
Almost 52 percent of the price of each liter of gas sold in self-service outlets goes to the state in the form of value added tax, oil, carbon and road tariffs.
Click here to read about other recent increases to the price of fuel in Iceland.
