Diesel (1 litre) prices by country
Diesel (1 litre) costs from $0.41 in Egypt to $2.75 in Singapore, across 49 countries priced in US dollars and in local currency.
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.
The numbers
| Country | USD | Local | Work time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Egypt | $0.41 | 20.5 EGP | 14 min |
| Saudi Arabia | $0.48 | 1.79 SAR | 2 min |
| Bangladesh | $0.94 | 115 BDT | 88 min |
| Colombia | $0.95 | 2,980.39 COP | 21 min |
| Japan | $1.00 | 159.5 JPY | 4 min |
| India | $1.03 | 98.33 INR | 25 min |
| United Arab Emirates | $1.04 | 3.8 AED | 4 min |
| Vietnam | $1.05 | 27,500 VND | 23 min |
| China | $1.10 | 7.44 CNY | 12 min |
| Malaysia | $1.10 | 4.47 MYR | 17 min |
| Thailand | $1.16 | 38.39 THB | 20 min |
| Lebanon | $1.21 | 118,750 LBP | 23 min |
| Indonesia | $1.23 | 21,910 IDR | 34 min |
| Nigeria | $1.23 | 1,662.5 NGN | 3.3 h |
| Brazil | $1.28 | 6.51 BRL | 17 min |
| Chile | $1.32 | 1,214.67 CLP | 13 min |
| Costa Rica | $1.35 | 606 CRC | 13 min |
| South Korea | $1.40 | 1,847.02 KRW | 6 min |
| Pakistan | $1.41 | 390.42 PKR | 2.8 h |
| Philippines | $1.44 | 88.8 PHP | 43 min |
| United States | $1.44 | 1.44 USD | 3 min |
| Uruguay | $1.46 | 58.68 UYU | 11 min |
| Tanzania | $1.50 | 3,978 TZS | 83 min |
| Argentina | $1.55 | 2,321.26 ARS | 27 min |
| Ghana | $1.55 | 17.12 GHS | 76 min |
| Mexico | $1.57 | 26.86 MXN | 24 min |
| New Zealand | $1.59 | 2.71 NZD | 4 min |
| Australia | $1.64 | 2.32 AUD | 4 min |
| Turkey | $1.66 | 79.68 TRY | 25 min |
| Canada | $1.67 | 2.32 CAD | 5 min |
| South Africa | $1.78 | 28.89 ZAR | 24 min |
| Peru | $1.80 | 6.04 PEN | 33 min |
| Hungary | $2.09 | 659 HUF | 15 min |
| Czechia | $2.10 | 43.97 CZK | 12 min |
| Spain | $2.10 | 1.81 EUR | 11 min |
| Sweden | $2.11 | 20.14 SEK | 6 min |
| Poland | $2.14 | 8.01 PLN | 16 min |
| Ireland | $2.20 | 1.9 EUR | 7 min |
| Romania | $2.26 | 10.24 RON | 17 min |
| Norway | $2.34 | 21.99 NOK | 5 min |
| Portugal | $2.35 | 2.03 EUR | 16 min |
| Italy | $2.43 | 2.1 EUR | 10 min |
| United Kingdom | $2.45 | 1.81 GBP | 8 min |
| France | $2.55 | 2.2 EUR | 9 min |
| Germany | $2.63 | 2.27 EUR | 7 min |
| Israel | $2.65 | 7.92 ILS | 8 min |
| Netherlands | $2.70 | 2.33 EUR | 8 min |
| Switzerland | $2.72 | 2.21 CHF | 5 min |
| Singapore | $2.75 | 3.52 SGD | 10 min |
Source: GlobalPetrolPrices.com, which publishes a weekly retail diesel price for around 170 countries in both the local currency and US dollars. Full methodology.
What the spread shows
The cheapest diesel in the game is in Egypt at $0.41; the most expensive is in Singapore at $2.75. That is a 6.7× difference for the same thing, against a median of $1.55 across all 49 countries.
Ranking by earnings instead of dollars rearranges the table. Nigeria has the longest wait, about 3.3 hours of the average local wage, while in Saudi Arabia it is roughly 2 minutes. A country can look cheap in dollars and expensive in hours at the same time, and for most people the hours are what actually matter.