Petrol Index 2022: how many litres of petrol can you buy for an average wage?

This is an archived report. The latest ranking is available here.

Our analysts at Picodi.com examined the dynamics of petrol price change in APAC and around the world in the first quarter of 2022 and calculated how many litres of petrol one can afford for an average wage in Hong Kong.

Petrol is even twice as expensive

In the first half of 2022, many countries in our region noted record-breaking increases in petrol prices. The anti-leader of this increase is Sri Lanka, where the petrol price increased by 129.5%.

In June, the average price of a litre of petrol in Hong Kong was 23.52 HKD This price is 14.8% higher than in January, when, on average, a litre of petrol cost 20.49 HKD. An even more severe increase in price can be felt by car owners in Vietnam (+36.8%), Indonesia (+47.7%) and Pakistan (+52.2%).

In Malaysia, petrol prices were stable throughout the first half of the year. 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).

Petrol Index 2022

In Hong Kong, after conversion to dollars, the petrol price is the highest in APAC – 1^st place out of 17 accounted for countries at $3.00/litre. Other countries with the highest petrol prices are Singapore and New Zealand, where citizens are currently paying $2.33/litre and $2.09/litre respectively. Low petrol prices can be enjoyed by citizens of Malaysia ($0.47/litre) and Taiwan ($1.05/litre).

This year we also checked the relation between petrol prices and local average wages.

(click the arrows to see data from the remaining 16 countries)

With the average wage, drivers from Australia (2,917 litres), Malaysia (1,790 litres) and Taiwan (1,583 litres) can buy the most petrol.

According to the newest data presented by C&SD, the average wage in Hong Kong is 16,841 HKD gross (15,858 HKD net). This means that an average Hongkonger for an average wage can buy 674 litres of petrol. Compared to the previous year’s petrol index, the purchasing power of the average wage in Hong Kong in the context of petrol has significantly decreased.

This is what the petrol index in Hong Kong looked like in the last few years:

• 2019 – 983 litres
• 2020 – 974 litres
• 2021 – 839 litres
• 2022 – 674 litres

Prices of petrol around the world: prices did not increase everywhere

Having substantial raw material resources saved some countries from the increase in the price of petrol. Countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar were not affected by the world’s economic situation. The governments of countries such as Columbia, Ecuador and Kazakhstan have decided to either freeze or set the upper limit on petrol prices.

(hover over the country to see the information)

In June of 2022, the lowest price of petrol was noted in Algeria ($0.31/litre), Kuwait ($0.34/litre) and Iran ($0.35/litre). Hong Kong on the other hand stands out as the country with the highest price of petrol per litre ($3.00/litre).

In the global ranking of purchasing power, the podium still belongs to the Gulf countries: 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.

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Methodology

Petrol Index is an annual ranking of the relation between petrol prices and salaries conducted by Picodi since 2019.

This study uses the newest average wage data published online by national statistics offices or relevant ministries. In countries where such data is not published, we used statistics from Numbeo.

The average petrol prices in 102 countries in the first half of 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. For currency conversion, we used the average exchange rate data from Google Finance for June 2022.

Public use

Would you like to share the information about petrol prices and wage purchasing power in Hong Kong and worldwide with your readers? You can freely use the data and infographics presented in this report both for commercial and non-commercial use, as long as you state the author of this research (Picodi.com) with a link to this subpage. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at: research@picodi.com.