Eurostat: Czech households had the highest gas and electricity prices in V4 in H1

Household electricity and gas prices in the Czech Republic were significantly higher in the first half of this year than in the other member countries of the Visegrad Group (V4): Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. Electricity prices for Czech households rose by more than a quarter year on year and gas prices by more than half. This is according to data published yesterday on the website of the European statistical office Eurostat.

According to Eurostat, the average household electricity price in the Czech Republic rose by 26 percent year on year in the first half of the year to 0,3212 euros (around 7,9 Kč) per kilowatt-hour (kWh). By comparison, households paid only 0,1892 euros per kilowatt-hour in Slovakia, 0,1769 euros in Poland and just 0,1161 euros in Hungary, according to Eurostat data.

According to Eurostat, the average household electricity price across the European Union was 0,289 euros per kWh in the first half of the year. It was highest in the Netherlands, where it rose by 953 percent year on year to 0,475 euros per kWh. Several factors contributed to the sharp increase, including the end of tax relief. Households in Bulgaria paid the least, at 0,1137 euros per kWh.

According to Eurostat data, the average household gas price in the Czech Republic rose by 57 percent year on year in the first half of the year to 0,1138 euros (around 2,8 Kč) per kWh. Households paid 0,0683 euros per kWh in Poland and 0,0571 euros per kWh in Slovakia. In Hungary, the price was just 0,0337 euros per kWh, the lowest in the entire EU.

As with electricity, households in the Netherlands paid the highest gas price in the EU, at 0,2481 euros per kWh. The average household gas price across the EU was 0,1187 euros per kWh in the first half of the year, Eurostat said.

In April, Eurostat published data on gas and electricity prices showing that household gas prices in the Czech Republic had risen more year on year in the second half of last year than in any other EU country. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala called the figures inaccurate at the time, however, and experts said they were based on suppliers’ price offers and therefore did not reflect the actual amounts customers paid.

Eurostat said at the time that it had obtained the published figures from the Czech Statistical Office (ČSÚ). In September, ČSÚ chairman Marek Rojíček announced that the office would continue to publish average energy prices offered by suppliers, but would in future designate transaction prices as primary data and provide them to Eurostat for international comparisons.