The price of fuels continues to find no ceiling this summer in Spain. The liter of gasoline is already being paid at pumps at an average of 1.705 euros, according to data from the latest EU oil bulletin, which is calculated with the amounts reflected at service stations between August 11 and 17. This means that this fuel has increased in price by 0.18% compared to the previous reference, thus chaining seven consecutive weeks of increases. Diesel follows the same pattern, but its cost is higher, as the price rose to 1.828 euros per liter, 0.38% more. These increases occur amid a greater distancing between the United States and Iran, as the memorandum of understanding signed between the two countries on June 17 to try to end the war expired this Monday after two months.
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But the parallel paths that gasoline and diesel have been following all summer could soon diverge. From September 1, diesel will see the activation of the safeguard clause of the anti-crisis shield that raises the discount on the hydrocarbon tax to 20 cents per liter. Gasoline, on the other hand, will follow the originally planned path and the tax discount will go from the current 10 cents to five. This measure was activated after the INE published inflation data in July, a month in which diesel exceeded the 15% year-on-year growth barrier (it rose 15.7% compared to the same month in 2025), while gasoline remained below (7.3%). The scheme was designed by the Government in the latest decree to mitigate the economic impacts of the Iran war.
Although the increase last week is more discreet, fuel prices have not stopped rising in Spain since the end of June. In the seven weeks since then, gasoline has increased by 18.4% and diesel by 21.1%. The price increase coincides with dates when a significant part of the population takes to the roads to leave or return from their holiday destinations. In addition, the gasoline cost announced this Wednesday is the third highest of the year, close to the 1.733 euros per liter that were paid in the first weeks after the outbreak of the conflict in Iran. The diesel peak was reached in April with 1.885 euros, and this week’s amount is the fourth highest so far in 2026.
If the data are compared with the average figures of the European Union, Spain continues to register amounts lower than the average of the Twenty-Seven, which rose to 1.923 euros per liter for gasoline, while diesel continues to exceed the two-euro barrier (2.033). By country, the one showing the highest gasoline cost is again Denmark (2.3 euros), while the Netherlands repeats as the territory with the most expensive diesel (2.2 euros). On the opposite side is Malta, which has kept prices frozen since June 2020 and they are the lowest in the entire EU.
The high fuel prices are one of the factors driving up inflation data in the EU and Spain. In the case of the Twenty-Seven, the CPI rose one tenth in July, to 3%, according to Eurostat published this Wednesday. In the component analysis, energy prices again stood above 10%, after having been slightly below that barrier the previous month. In Spain, the National Statistics Institute corrected last week upwards the general inflation in July to 3.6% year-on-year, one tenth more than estimated in the preliminary data.
