Life StyleThế Giới

German woman switched to horse-drawn carriage because of high gas prices

“The situation cannot continue like this anymore. I knew that the price of hay and everything else would also skyrocket, so I decided to save some money,” the woman shared.

Now Ms. Kirchner spends 1 hour instead of the usual 10 minutes on the way from home to work, but this will allow her to save up to 250 euros a month.

With fuel prices soar, more people could switch to horse-drawn carriages if the city’s infrastructure adapts better, Ms. Kirchner said.

German woman switched to horse-drawn carriage because of high gas prices - Photo 1.

Photo: AP

Recently, Germany launched a new plan to encourage all sectors of society to use energy sparingly to reduce Russia’s dependence on fossil fuels next winter.

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck presented the plan on May 17, stressing that the most effective and cheapest contribution to energy independence is consuming less.

According to Berlin-based energy consultancy Aurora Energy Research, if Russia stops supplying gas to Germany, the country’s industry and households will be short of 2-12 billion cubic meters of gas in the summer. Winter is coming, depending on weather conditions.

German fuel prices are among the highest in Europe. Figures from the German Federal Statistics Office (Destatis) show that the country has the highest fuel prices in Europe. As of April 4, the price of diesel is 2.06 euros ($2.24) per liter in Germany, while E5 gasoline also costs 2.06 euros per liter.

Germany is also one of the most expensive countries in the European Union (EU) in terms of fuel prices, behind only Finland, the Netherlands and Denmark. While the neighboring country with the cheapest E5 gasoline is Poland, where 1 liter costs 1.42 euros.

According to Destatis, in April 2022, energy prices in Germany increased by 35.3% over the same period last year. The price of heating oil in April 2022 has nearly doubled over the same period last year. Meanwhile, fuel and natural gas prices also increased sharply, by 38.5% and 47.5% respectively.

The head of Destatis, Georg Thiel, said that the spike in energy prices since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict has had a significant impact on the inflation rate. Food prices were also high, with an 8.6% increase year-on-year, significantly faster than the previous month’s 6.2% increase.

Meanwhile, inflation in Germany increased to 7.4%, the highest level in 40 years, in April 2022 due to high prices of energy and motor fuels. Inflation in the Eurozone is even higher, at 7.5%.

Economy Minister Robert Habeck recently said that Germany is expecting its inflation rate to be only 6.1% this year and 2.8% in 2023.

You are reading the article German woman switched to horse-drawn carriage because of high gas prices
at Blogtuan.info – Source: Afamily.vn – Read the original article here

Back to top button