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 Africa 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 South Africa.

Petrol is even more 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 South Africa, where the petrol price increased by 19.6%.

In June, the average price of a litre of petrol in South Africa was R23.85. This price is 19.6% higher than in January, when, on average, a litre of petrol cost R19.93. An increase in price can also be felt by car owners in Tunisia (+11.2%), Zambia (+17.0%) and Kenya (+18.2%).

In Algeria, petrol prices were stable throughout the first half of the year. In Egypt and Nigeria, the price increased only by a small margin – 5.4% and 3.4% respectively.

Petrol Index 2022

In South Africa, after conversion to dollars, the petrol price is the highest in Africa – 1^st place out of 7 accounted for countries at $1.51/litre. Other countries with the highest petrol prices are Zambia and Kenya, where citizens are currently paying $1.45/litre and $1.33/litre respectively. Low petrol prices can be enjoyed by citizens of Algeria ($0.31/litre) and Egypt ($0.52/litre).

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

(click the arrows to see data from the remaining 6 countries)

With the average wage, drivers from South Africa (865 litres), Algeria (764 litres) and Egypt (437 litres) can buy the most petrol.

According to the newest data presented by Stats SA, the average wage in South Africa is R23,982.00 gross monthly (R20,622.10 net monthly). This means that an average South African for an average wage can buy 865 litres of petrol. Compared to the previous year’s petrol index, the purchasing power of the average South African wage in the context of petrol has significantly decreased.

This is what the petrol index in South Africa looked like in the last few years:

• 2019 – 1,215 litres
• 2020 – 1,345 litres
• 2021 – 1,237 litres
• 2022 – 865 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.

With increasing petrol prices, leaving your car in the garage might be a good idea. Picodi allows you to travel with Avis, Europcar and Qatar Airways, and get 5% of your spendings through cashback.

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 South Africa 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.