This article first appeared at ntv.de
Even though electricity has recently become cheaper, it is still expensive in Germany. In this country you have to pay three percent more for it than three years ago. But at least German consumers no longer pay the highest electricity prices compared internationally. At 9th place, they are still one of the highest in the world.
This is the result of a price analysis of 147 countries carried out by the comparison portal Verivox using data from the energy service Global Petrol Prices. The most expensive electricity in an international comparison is consumed by private households in Bermuda. In the first quarter of 2024, a kilowatt hour (kWh) cost a nominal 42.52 euro cents there.
Italy is in second place with a kWh price of 41 cents. This is followed by the Cayman Islands (39.91 cents), Ireland (39.40 cents) and Liechtenstein (36.26 cents). Germany is in 9th place in the ranking together with Belgium. While German consumers paid the highest electricity prices in the world in 2021 at 31.80 cents, they currently pay 32.80 cents.
In a global comparison, electricity is currently nominally cheapest in Iran. A kilowatt hour here costs the equivalent of 0.23 euro cents, followed by Sudan at 0.51 cents. In Syria (0.53 cents), Ethiopia (0.57 cents) and Libya (0.76 cents) the costs are also less than one cent per kilowatt hour.
On a global average, electricity currently costs 14.31 cents, 23 percent more than in 2021 (11.62 cents). In the group of the most important industrialized and emerging countries, electricity prices rose by an average of 21 percent (from 13.13 to 15.84 cents). Taking purchasing power into account, electricity prices in Germany are in 21st place in a global comparison (2021: 15th place). In the group of most important industrialized and emerging countries, Germany ranks second in terms of purchasing power (2021: first place) behind Italy.