Die Nettopreise von Kraftstoffen lagen in Österreich in der Vergangenheit durchwegs über dem Niveau der Nachbarländer. 1998
etwa war Superbenzin ohne Steuern um 30% teurer als in Deutschland. Die Ursache dieses Preisvorsprungs liegt weniger in Standortfaktoren,
wie Transportkosten und Umweltauflagen, als vielmehr im Fehlen von Preiswettbewerb zwischen den großen Mineralölgesellschaften.
Die Vereinbarung zwischen Erdölindustrie und Wirtschaftsministerium im April 1999 hatte eine Senkung des Nettopreisniveaus
um 7,5% zur Folge.
Keywords:Analyse der Kraftstoffpreise in Österreich; Analysing Austrian Petrol Prices
Forschungsbereich:Regionalökonomie und räumliche Analyse
Sprache:Deutsch
Analysing Austrian Petrol Prices
Austria has always been among the OECD countries with the highest net petrol prices. Compared to Germany, annual average prices
(excluding taxes) in 1998 were higher by 30 percent for Eurosuper, and by 27 percent for diesel. In Austria, petrol prices
were weaker in their response to changes in crude oil prices than in Germany. Like the high level per se, the "inertia" is
due to lack of price competition. The major petrol companies have so far competed primarily on the basis of advertising, service
quality, product design and new products. Market shares were, at least partly, safeguarded by subsidising petrol stations
with weak sales, a strategy that delayed structural adjustment in the distribution system and prevented significant cost cuttings.
In competing against discounters the major companies responded mainly with a single strategy: when a discounter attempted
to woo shares away by offering low prices, branded petrol stations similarly cut their prices, so that the discounter was
unable to achieve the sales growth rates required for fixed cost regression. When the petrol prices were released from price
control by the government in 1981, attempts were made to harmonise the net price level in Austria with average prices in the
western neighbour countries by way of agreements between the government and the petroleum industry. The 1990 agreement between
the minister of economic affairs and the oil industry ("glass pockets"), however, produced no measurable change in the pricing
process. The agreement of March 1999, on the other hand, put a noticeable damper on price increases. Between April and August
1999, prices rose by ATS 0.20 to 0.26 less than would have been expected if terms had not been changed. The net price level
for super declined by 7.5 percent.