What’s the truth? Energy in Hungary is far from being the cheapest

There are countries that have protected their utility bills less from the world market, yet energy is cheaper than the Hungarian government claims.

Higher energy prices from August

The government media communicates about HUF 242 (EUR 0.61) for electricity and HUF 912 (EUR 2.3) for gas, while on the free market you can buy cheaper, reports atlatszo.hu. Looking at the neighbouring countries, it is also clear that the market price the Hungarian government is imposing would be exclusive to Hungary: nowhere in Central and Eastern Europe do residents pay so much for gas and electricity.

What are the numbers?

Szilárd Németh, deputy leader of Fidesz, said the following after Gergely Gulyás, Minister of the PM’s office, announced at an extraordinary cabinet briefing that the official gas and electricity prices for the population cannot be maintained, so they will be changed:

“The average consumer pays HUF 7750 (EUR 19.54) for electricity per month with the protection of the utility bills. If there were no preferential price, the electricity bill would be HUF 50 833 (EUR 128.18). The same for gas is HUF 15 833 (EUR 39.92), which would cost HUF 131 441 (EUR 331.44) per month if there were no overhead cuts. In a year, therefore, the average consumption costs HUF 93,000 (EUR 234.68) for electricity instead of HUF 610,000 (EUR 1539.32), and HUF 190,000 (EUR 479.4) for gas instead of HUF 1.5 million (EUR 3784.76).”

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How about neighbouring countries?

This showed that the government had calculated an electricity price of HUF 242 (EUR 0.61) and a gas price of HUF 912 (EUR 2.3) per cubic metre. Under the new system, which will go live in August, consumers will now pay the bulk of the bills. However, nowhere in neighbouring countries are the energy prices as brutally hight as the government has introduced.

The Czech Republic is the most expensive, but life is not cheap in Romania either. Slovakia and Serbia also have price controls, but they still pay more than we do here at home. However, that is still less than the price announced by the government for August.

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The Hungarian Energy and Public Utility Regulatory Office (MEKH) has regularly published data on energy prices in Europe, always highlighting the low prices in Hungary. MEKH’s website also provides market prices, which show that market players receive electricity much cheaper than the government claims, writes atlatszo.hu.

Summary – planned price higher than market price

To summarise, gas and electricity in Hungary is one of the cheapest among the European capitals as a result of the utility cuts, but the proposed price would be significantly higher than the market price.

The market price of gas for Budapest would be HUF 781.8 (EUR 1.97) per cubic metre, while the planned price is HUF 912 (EUR 2.3). The market price of electricity would be HUF 90.17 (EUR 0.23) per kilowatt-hour, while the planned price is 242 HUF (EUR 0.61)!