Despite the falls recorded in recent weeks and the discount of 20 cents per liter approved by the Government, fuels have closed August on the rise in what will be the most expensive summer in history, so that filling the tank has cost up to 24 euros more than a year ago. According to the data released this Thursday by the Oil Bulletin of the European Union (EU), which includes the average price registered in more than 11,400 Spanish service stations between August 23 and 29, gasoline was sold in Spain at an average of 1,594 euros per liter, while diesel was at 1,682 euros. These prices, which occur during the special traffic operation for the return of the summer holidays, are 0.5 % higher than those of the last week in the case of gasoline, which has risen for the first time since the beginning of the summer, and 4% for diesel, which is chaining its second rise. Thus, these values, which include the discount of 20 cents Government, they assume that filling an average 55-litre tank with gasoline costs 88 euros, compared to 93 euros for diesel, which translates into paying around 10 euros more than a year ago if gasoline is used, and 24 euros if choose diesel. However, compared to the prices that both fuels marked at the beginning of the summer, the Spanish paid during the last week about 19 euros less when refueling gasoline, and almost 10 euros less in the case of diesel. THE MOST SUMMER EXPENSIVE IN HISTORY In this sense, and despite the fact that fuels accumulate several weeks of falls, current prices have been the most expensive in history for a month of August, a period in which there is usually a marked increase in mobility on Spanish roads due to the summer holidays. Until now, the highest prices with which fuels had closed in August were recorded in 2012, ten years ago, when a liter of gasoline cost 1,522 euros, and diesel 1,445 euros, 5% and 15% less, respectively, than the current values. Curiously, the prices of that week in 2012 were the historical maximums for gasoline and diesel until this year, when the recovery of mobility after the pandemic first, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine later, has led fuels to mark historically high prices. The current prices are also 13% and 34% higher than the prices that marked gasoline and diesel during last August, when mobility began to recover in the summer months after the coronavirus crisis, and reached prices of 1,414 and 1,258 euros, respectively. Compared to the values of August 2020, the year of the pandemic, when mobility levels plummeted, gasoline is now 36% more expensive, compared to 59% that diesel has become more expensive, while if the comparison is made with the same month of 2019, before the pandemic, the increases are softened to 22% and 40%, respectively. However, the prices without the government discount would be even higher -1,794 euros for gasoline and 1,882 for diesel-, so this bonus allows consumers to save around 11 euros when filling the tank, whether they use gasoline or opt for diesel. In addition, the current prices are still lower than those marked on average by Spanish service stations at the end of March, when the bonus was approved and prices began to skyrocket to exceed 2 euros per liter, always without including the discount. BELOW THE EUROPEAN AVERAGE Despite the historically high levels registered by gasoline and diesel in Spain, the lower tax burden borne by both fuels and the bonus approved by the Executive place their price below the European average -1,782 euros per gasoline and 1,911 euros for diesel. Thus, the most expensive gasoline in the EU is currently found in Finland (2,122 euros) and Denmark (2,116 euros), while the diesel with the highest price is also in the Nordic countries, specifically in Sweden (2,429 euros) and, again, in Denmark (2,147 euros). On the contrary, the lowest gasoline prices on the continent are registered in Hungary (1,284 euros) and Malta (1.34 euros), and those of diesel are marked again by Malta (1.21 euros) and Poland (1,604 euros). ). Compared to surrounding countries, the average prices of gasoline and diesel in Spain present the lowest values, being surpassed by Germany, where gasoline is paid at 1,836 euros and diesel at 2,077 euros, France (1,779 and 1,948 euros, respectively), Italy (1,761 and 1,808 euros) and Portugal (1,781 and 1,865 euros).