Pricele #104: Diesel (1 litre) in Uruguay 🇺🇾

Diesel and petrol leave the same refinery, so the gap between them in any country is almost entirely tax. Much of Europe spent decades taxing diesel more lightly than petrol to favour freight and diesel cars, and has been closing that gap since 2015. Elsewhere the ordering flips: plenty of countries price diesel above petrol because it is the fuel of business rather than of voters.

Of the 49 countries priced for diesel, Uruguay ranks #28 from the top at $1.46, 6% below the median of $1.55.

Uruguay is small, high-income by South American standards, and expensive in a way that surprises people who expect it to price like its neighbours. Part of that is a market of three and a half million people; part is a 22% IVA, the highest standard rate in the Americas. Food drops to 10% and milk is exempt outright, so the tax wedge on a grocery basket is narrower than the headline suggests. Beef is the exception that proves the rule: Uruguay exports a great deal of it, and it is priced for a local buyer accordingly.

See the full table for diesel in every country or everything priced in Uruguay.