WITH the RON95 currently priced at RM2.05/litre or 47 US cents, Malaysia boasts the lowest petrol price in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region by ranking 17th place out 17 accounted APAC countries.
According to statistics made available by Picodi.com, an average Malaysian is able to buy 1,790 litres of petrol based on the country’s average wage of RM3,670 as per data made available by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).
“Compared to the previous year’s petrol index, the purchasing power of the average Malaysian wage in the context of petrol has slightly increased,” Picodi.com pointed out.
In 2021, Malaysians could purchase 1,711 litres of petrol based on the average national wage while the purchasing power shot up to 2,135 litres in 2020 (at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when price pf RON95 dipped to a low of RM1.25/litre) and 1,707 litres in 2019.
The current ceiling price of RM2.05/litre for RON95 petrol has been in place since Feb 27, 2021.
Apart from Malaysia, low petrol prices are also be enjoyed by citizens of Taiwan (US$1.05/litre) and Pakistan (US$1.08/litre).
On the other side of the divide, Hongkongers, Singaporeans and New Zealanders are currently paying the most for their fuel at US$3/litre, US$2.33/litre and US$2.09/litre respectively.
At US$3.00/litre, petrol in Hong Kong is the most expensive both in the APAC region and in the entire world.
In June of 2022, the lowest price of petrol was noted in Algeria at 31 US cents/litre, Kuwait (34 US cents/litre) and Iran (35 US cents/litre). In the global ranking of purchasing power, the podium still belongs to the Gulf countries with Qatar (5,968 litres), Kuwait (5,578 litres) and Saudi Arabia (4,372 litres).
“The poorest country in this comparison is Cuba where the average wage is equal to only 27 litres of petrol,” revealed Picodi.com.
To re-cap, many APAC countries in experienced record-breaking increases in petrol prices. The anti-leader of this increase is Sri Lanka where the petrol price increased by 129.5%.
In countries such as India, Taiwan and Japan, petrol prices increased only by a very small margin (+1.3%, +2.4% and +3.1% respectively). On the other hand, countries such as the Philippines (+36.9%), Indonesia (+47.7%) and in Pakistan (+52.2%) experienced much harsher price increases.
Delving on its research methodology, Picodi.com said its Petrol Index is an annual ranking of the relation between petrol prices and salaries.
Conducted since 2019, the study uses the newest average wage data published online by national statistics offices or relevant ministries. In countries where such data is not published, Picodi.com relies on statistics from Numbeo.
The average petrol prices in 102 countries in 1H 2022 were taken from GlobalPetrolPrices.com and other local sources. The difference between prices in June and January was calculated in local currencies.
“In order to get the number of litres, we divided the average net wage (obtained through local wage calculators) by an average price of 1 litre of petrol,” revealed Picodi.com. “For currency conversion, we used the average exchange rate data from Google Finance for June 2022.” – July 15, 2022
