Petrol Index 2023: how many litres of petrol can you buy for an average wage?

Picodi.com analysts examined the dynamics of petrol price change in South Africa and around the world in the first half of the year and calculated how many litres of petrol an average South African earning an average wage can afford.

Petrol prices have stabilized

In the first six months of 2023, the prices of petrol in our region remained stable. In most countries, the petrol price in June remained unchanged or differed from the price in January by less than 10%. Only in Nigeria petrol became noticeably more expensive – 163%. In Mauritius, petrol was cheaper than in January by 5%.

In South Africa, the average petrol price in June 2023 was R22.27, R1.19 more than in January (R21.08).

The petrol prices remained unchanged in two countries – Algeria and Tunisia.

Petrol Index 2023

The lowest petrol prices can be found in Tunisia ($0.82/litre), Egypt ($0.37/litre) and Algeria ($0.34/litre). On the other hand, the highest petrol prices have to be paid by drivers from Mauritius ($1.62/litre), Zambia ($1.46/litre), and Kenya ($1.32/litre). In South Africa, petrol costs $1.19/litre, 17 cents more than the continental average.

We also checked the relation between petrol prices and local average wages.

(click the arrows to see data from the remaining 8 countries)

With the average wage, the most petrol can be bought by the citizens of countries such as South Africa (968 litres), Algeria (792 litres), and Egypt (396 litres).

According to the newest data presented by StatsSA, the average wage in South Africa is R25,304 gross (R21,564 net monthly). This means that an average South African can buy 968 litres of petrol (1^st out of 9 countries). Last year, in the same period, the average wage could buy 865 litres (103 litres less).

This is what the petrol index in South Africa looked like in the last 5 years:

• 2019 – 1,215 litres;
• 2020 – 1,345 litres;
• 2021 – 1,237 litres;
• 2022 – 865 litres;
• 2023 – 968 litres.

In search of a driver’s paradise…

Compared to last year, the three leaders have not changed: Algeria ($0.34/litre), Kuwait ($0.34/litre) and Iran ($0.35/litre) are still the cheapest countries in the world. Hong Kong continues to be the most expensive country with a litre of petrol costing $2.99.

(hover over the country to see the information)

In the global ranking of purchasing power, the podium belongs to the Gulf countries: with the average wage the most petrol can be bought in Kuwait (7,222 litres), Qatar (6,839 litres), and the United Arab Emirates (4,611 litres).

On the other hand, the Petrol Index looks the worst in these countries:

• Pakistan – 166 litres for the average wage;
• Sri Lanka – 157 litres;
• Cuba – 27 litres.

Methodology

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

In this study, we used the latest average wage data published 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 104 countries in the first half of 2023 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 calculate the “Petrol Index”, we divided the average net wage (obtained through local wage calculators) by an average price of a litre of petrol in June. For currency conversion, we used the average exchange rate data from Google Finance for June 2023.

All the prices, along with the list of sources can be found here.

Public Use

Would you like to share 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 who the author of the research is (Picodi.com), with a link to this subpage. To copy the code of the infographic, click the icon in the upper right corner of it. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at: research@picodi.com.