The increase in petrol and diesel prices in Romania since the beginning of the year, driven by oil prices that have broken record after record, is the lowest of all the countries in the region, Ziarul Financiar reported.

Petrol prices in Romania have gone up by some 13% since the beginning of the year, because the product in highest demand in this category is Euro-Super 95 petrol, while the increase in diesel prices amounted to approximately 19%, according to European statistics.

Hungary, for instance, saw petroleum prices rise by 19%, while diesel increased by 24%. Bulgaria saw pump prices advance by 15% for petrol and by 21% for diesel.

"A potential reason for this would be that we are witnessing a segmentation of the regional market. Price fluctuations may be different from one region to another and they depend on the supply and demand ratio dictated by the market. Under the circumstances, Romanian and the Central and Western Europe can be analysed as separate markets," say representatives of Hungarian petroleum group MOL.