Data published by Eurostat (the Statistical Office of the European Union) on Thursday, 10 February, indicate that consumer prices for electricity, gas, and other fuels increased 25% between December 2020 and December 2021.
During this period, energy import prices in the euro area more than doubled (115%). Prices for domestic industrial production increased nearly three quarters (73%).
This development sharply contrasts with the relative stability of energy prices between 2010 and 2019, that being the period before the Covid-19 pandemic.
The data thus reveal that energy import prices—while rather volatile—did not vary by more than approximately 30% over the course of a given year in the past, whereas production prices did not vary by more than approximately 10% per year.
Effect of Covid-19 on imports
Other data published the day before revealed a decrease in the EU’s dependence on energy imports in 2020.
The European Union imported 57.5% of the energy it consumed over the course of that year—down almost three percentage points compared to 2019, the year when this indicator reached a record level of 60.5%.
Eurostat explains that these changes were linked to the drop in demand due to the restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic crisis.
See the data: https://aeur.eu/f/bl ; https://aeur.eu/f/bm (Damien Genicot)