Bulgaria is the leader in the European Union in fuel price increases in May. This is shown by data from the European statistical office Eurostat, published on Monday. According to them, last month the group of fuels and lubricants in our country became 33.9% more expensive compared to May 2025. After us are Luxembourg (32.2% growth), Lithuania (30.8%) and Romania (30.4%).
For comparison, Hungary is at the bottom with a price increase of 3.5%, but immediately after it is Poland with a result of about 13 percent.
As Economic.bg wrote, in recent days the price of crude oil on international markets has fallen due to progress in reaching a final agreement between the US and Iran. At the same time, this development does not yet reflect the prices of the columns, and the reason is the mechanics of the market itself - if oil becomes more expensive, fuels go up with it, i.e. when the price rises, those selling to the end customer do the same, so that they subsequently have enough money to buy the same amount of fuel.
When oil becomes cheaper, however, traders cannot automatically lower their prices, because the purchased product was acquired at a high price.
Diesel becomes cheaper, but gasoline becomes more expensive
As for the prices of diesel and gasoline in the EU, in May 2026 they were respectively 29 and 16.2% higher compared to May 2025. In April 2026, diesel prices increased by 33.7%, and gasoline - by 13.6%.
On a monthly basis, however, consumers in the EU have seen diesel prices fall by 5.8%, while petrol prices have risen again, albeit by only 0.8% compared to April 2026. In April 2026, diesel prices increased by 7.9% and petrol prices by 2.4% compared to March 2026.
During the period between April and May 2026, diesel prices increased only in Romania (+1.6%), while they decreased in all other EU countries. The largest decreases were recorded in Germany (-11.9%), Greece (-8.5%), Estonia (-8.4%) and Ireland (-8.1%), and the smallest ones in Bulgaria (-0.7%), Hungary (-0.9%) and Cyprus (-1.5%).
Regarding petrol prices, 23 EU countries recorded an increase between April and May 2026, with increases ranging from +6.9% in Italy to +0.1% in Croatia and Hungary. On the other hand, Germany (-5.6%), Ireland (-2.0%) and Sweden (-0.7%) reported price decreases in May compared to the previous month.