IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/11154.html

Global Stock-Take of Fuel Subsidies and Pricing Policies

Author

Listed:
  • Akcura, Elcin

Abstract

Oil price increases that began in late 2020 led to a global proliferation of liquid fuel subsidies and price controls as governments tried to reduce, redistribute, or delay the impact of rising and volatile energy prices on consumers. This paper draws on a unique database to analyze the petroleum product pricing regimes and consumer price subsidies implemented in 154 economies since 2021. The results indicate that currently a majority of countries regulate fuel prices. Of the 154 economies examined, less than half had deregulated fuel prices as of January 2025. In all, 45 percent of the economies that regulate fuel prices have frozen prices for months and, in some cases, for years. Such infrequent price adjustments, common in Sub-Saharan Africa and in the Middle East and North Africa, lead to significant market distortions, including fuel shortages, smuggling, and unsustainable subsidy costs. Pressure on governments to intervene in the fuel markets surged in 2022 following the spike in international oil prices. In response, 132 of the 154 governments studied instituted a form of fuel price control or subsidy measure in 2022: 59 governments provided direct fuel subsidies, 61 cut fuel taxes, and 41 froze fuel prices entirely. Overall, 29 governments implemented both tax reductions and price subsidies in 2022. A few countries that had deregulated fuel prices prior to 2022 ended up reregulating prices. As of January 2025, 14 countries continued to maintain the 2022 fuel tax reductions. Additionally, fuel prices remained unchanged in several countries over this period. As of January 2025, at least 16 economies were implementing subsidy reforms, while nine others were considering reforming their existing subsidies in the coming years. These economies can benefit from the lessons learned from previous episodes of rising oil prices as well as those from recent international experience, which are documented in this paper and the two new World Bank global databases developed for this study.

Suggested Citation

  • Akcura, Elcin, 2025. "Global Stock-Take of Fuel Subsidies and Pricing Policies," Policy Research Working Paper Series 11154, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:11154
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099216406262514580/pdf/IDU-92a42c9f-626f-4ae2-97ef-73da307f8ced.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. World Bank, 2024. "Commodity Markets Outlook, April 2024," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 41280, April.
    2. Matallah, Siham & Boudaoud, Souhila & Matallah, Amal & Ferhaoui, Mustapha, 2023. "The role of fossil fuel subsidies in preventing a jump-start on the transition to renewable energy: Empirical evidence from Algeria," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(PB).
    3. Mr. Simon Black & Antung A. Liu & Ian W.H. Parry & Nate Vernon-Lin, 2023. "IMF Fossil Fuel Subsidies Data: 2023 Update," IMF Working Papers 2023/169, International Monetary Fund.
    4. World Bank, 2024. "Commodity Markets Outlook, October 2024," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 42219, April.
    5. Kojima,Masami, 2016. "Fossil fuel subsidy and pricing policies : recent developing country experience," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7531, The World Bank.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. AboBakr A. Youssef & Amal A. Badr & Walid M. Fouad, 2025. "Agronomic Impact and Cost Analysis of Natural Rocks and Biological Inoculants in Potato Production," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-18, September.
    2. Bharadwaj, Preethika & Innocenti, Stefania, 2025. "Securing Public Support for Fuel Subsidy Reform: Experimental and Policymaker Insights from Malaysia," INET Oxford Working Papers 2025-03, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
    3. Akcura, Elcin, 2025. "A Global Assessment of Domestic Petroleum Fuel Prices," Policy Research Working Paper Series 11153, The World Bank.
    4. Nicolás Bonino-Gayoso & Lucía Cuadro-Sáez & Corinna Ghirelli & Matías Pacce & Isabel Sánchez, 2025. "Food prices: developments and outlook," Economic Bulletin, Banco de España, issue 2025/Q2.
    5. Mobarok, Mohammad H. & Thompson, Wyatt, 2024. "Climate Change Impact on Bangladesh's Food Security: A trade regime switching partial equilibrium model approach," 2024 Annual Meeting, July 28-30, New Orleans, LA 343705, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Aggarwal, Raavi & Missbach, Leonard & Somanathan, E. & Steckel, Jan Christoph & Sterner, Thomas, 2025. "Negative health effects of carbon prices can outweigh the climate benefits in developing countries," EfD Discussion Paper 25-9, Environment for Development, University of Gothenburg.
    7. Neil McCulloch, 2017. "Energy subsidies, international aid, and the politics of reform," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-174, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    8. Paolo Angelini, 2024. "Portfolio decarbonisation strategies: questions and suggestions," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 840, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    9. Pansong Jiang & Donglan Zha & Qian Chen & Jaume Freire González, 2026. "The Carbon Rebound Challenge: Evaluating the Mitigation Effect of Fossil Fuel Subsidy Removal in Chinese Households," Working Papers 1561, Barcelona School of Economics.
    10. Anan Wattanakuljarus, 2021. "Diverse effects of fossil fuel subsidy reform on industrial competitiveness in Thailand," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 11(3), pages 489-517, September.
    11. Wheeler,Collette Mari & Baffes,John & Kabundi,Alain Ntumba & Kindberg-Hanlon,Gene & Nagle,Peter Stephen Oliver & Ohnsorge,Franziska Lieselotte, 2020. "Adding Fuel to the Fire : Cheap Oil during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9320, The World Bank.
    12. Feng, Kuishuang & Hubacek, Klaus & Liu, Yu & Marchán, Estefanía & Vogt-Schilb, Adrien, 2018. "Managing the distributional effects of energy taxes and subsidy removal in Latin America and the Caribbean," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 424-436.
    13. World Bank Group, 2024. "Ecuador Country Climate and Development Report [Informe sobre el clima y el desarrollo del país de Ecuador]," World Bank Publications - Reports 42126, The World Bank Group.
    14. Richard Damania & Esteban Balseca & Charlotte de Fontaubert & Joshua Gill & Kichan Kim & Jun Rentschler & Jason Russ & Esha Zaveri, 2023. "Detox Development," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 39423, April.
    15. Ian Parry & Simon Black & Danielle Minnett & Karlygash Zhunussova, 2025. "Policies to Decarbonize Industry While Addressing Competitiveness and Carbon Leakage," CESifo Working Paper Series 12272, CESifo.
    16. Barnet, C. & Maïzi, N. & Selosse, S., 2025. "From hydrocarbon to low-carbon hydrogen: Energy and economic challenges facing the Middle East and North Africa region," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    17. Sen, Kanchan Kumar & Karmaker, Shamal Chandra & Chapman, Andrew J. & Saha, Bidyut Baran, 2025. "How does environmental policy shape the impact of energy innovation funding on renewable energy generation? Evidence from econometric and machine learning approaches," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    18. Hebous, Shafik & Vernon-Lin, Nate, 2024. "Cryptocarbon: How much is the corrective tax?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    19. Shittu, Ibrahim & Abdul Latiff, Abdul Rais & Baharudin, Siti ‘Aisyah, 2024. "Assessing the compensation and reinvestment plans for fuel subsidy rationalization in Nigeria: A dynamic computable general equilibrium approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    20. Guillermo Beylis & Barbara Cunha, 2017. "Energy Pricing Policies for Inclusive Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 28299, April.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:11154. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.