Austrian car fuel prices below European average

Austrian car petrol prices are lower than the European average.German motorists association ACE Auto Club Europa said today (Fri) Turkey topped the ranking with an average 1.88 Euros for one litre of petrol. It said fuel was cheapest in Russia where drivers pay just around 81 cents.ACE Auto Club Europa said car petrol cost an average 1.21 Euros in Austria, while the European average was 1.25 Euros.Croatia is among those countries with cheaper car fuel prices than Austria with 1.17 Euros, it added. This could lead to an increase in the number of Austrians travelling by car to Croatia to spend their holidays there.Austrian car club Arbö said earlier this week that around 18 per cent of Austrians planning to take the car on holiday were expected to drive to Croatia. The body said this makes the country the most popular destination neck-and-neck with Italy.ACE Auto Club Europa, which is based in Stuttgart, also said that car petrol costs an average 1.43 Euros in Germany. Around one in ten Austrians taking their cars will travel to the country, according to Arbö.ACE Auto Club Europa said it investigated prices in 38 European countries, while Arbö explained it used preliminary booking figures provided by travel agencies and poll results to conduct their ranking.The Austrian government is currently considering raising the tax on car fuel. Arbö and ÖAMTC, Austria’s other leading motorists association, appealed to Social Democratic (SPÖ) Traffic Minister Doris Bures not to do so. The institutions claimed such a decision would bring an end to the so-called “fuel tourism”. This term describes thousands of Italians, Germans and Swiss crossing the border only to fuel their vehicles in Austria.Official figures presented earlier this week revealed that the Austrian inflation rate of 1.9 per cent would have been 0.9 per cent lower last month without a 21 per cent increase in mineral oil products and a 19 per cent year on year rise of prices for car petrol.