The market participants' opinion is that the rush in demand for fuel was provoked by the situation in Ukraine, a sharp rise in prices and panic unleashed by social networks and mass media.
Representatives of the largest petroleum product market operators in Moldova expressed this opinion to InfoMarket Agency correspondents, noting that the country has enough fuel, but not all petrol stations were ready to meet the sharply increased demand. ANRE announced on Wednesday a price increase from Thursday of 1.91 lei (+8.3%) for diesel and almost 1 leu (3.9%) for gasoline. This is the sharpest price increase in one day, which provoked panic in social networks and provoked many consumers to buy as much fuel as possible at Wednesday's price. As a result, at many gas stations there were queues and shortages of fuel, and some gas stations sold fuel only on the cards of regular customers or in limited quantities. Panic and agitation on the fuel market is also observed in neighboring Romania, from where almost all Moldovan importers supply fuel to Moldova. Recently, one of the Romanian market operators raised the price by almost 50%, which provoked panic and turmoil that eventually led to operational tax inspections at the operator and it was forced to return to the market price. Operators of the Moldovan market of petroleum products expect the rush to decrease in the coming days, as many managed to purchase fuel at previous prices. At the same time, the situation on world markets, which affects the final price of fuel, remains tense. It should be noted that on Friday, March 11, ANRE set the maximal price for petrol A-95 at 27.08 lei per liter, which is by 0.4 lei (1.5%) more as compared with the price of March 10, and for diesel - 25.8 lei/liter (+0.78 lei or +3.1%). // 10.03.2022 - InfoMarket.
