Romania's Competition Council to Investigate Fuel Price Surge

The head of Romania's Competition Council, Bogdan Chirițoiu, said Wednesday the institution is permanently monitoring the fuel market and will publicly present its analysis conclusions once it receives data from the last week, when price spikes were observed. Chirițoiu stated the council receives direct information from companies, in addition to periodic data, and analyzes it in a European context. He noted a new mechanism capping commercial markups on fuel has been introduced, and suggested the increases could stem from Black Sea supply disruptions or operators exploiting the period before the cap took effect. Romania recorded the largest diesel price increase in the EU over the past seven days, with prices rising 7.5% to over 10.5 lei per liter. The government has promulgated a crisis law reducing the diesel excise and capping commercial markups.