In a note entitled How motorists adjust their fuel consumption to short-term price variations and published this Thursday, INSEE analyzes the consequences of the fuel aid granted last year on the wallets of the French.
Faced with soaring prices at the pump, the government has increased support premiums and boosts last year for households.
For fuel, the executive initially chose to lower the price of the liter directly at the pump up to 30 centsbefore opting for a fuel check of 100 euros, more targeted to 10 million households who use their car every day to get to work. To take advantage of it, you had to earn less than 1,314 euros net per month for a single person, for example.
A saving of 51,82 euros on the fuel bill
But how to assess the effectiveness of these policies? For the pump rebate, simulations suggest that they led reduce motorists’ bills by €51,81 on average in 2022. The wealthiest 25%, who consume more fuel on average, have benefited more from this measure (between 64 and 115 euros, against between 29 and 48 euros for the lowest 25%), but this relief represented a smaller share of their income. These estimates take into account the increase in fuel consumption induced by discounts, writes INSEE in a note entitled How motorists adjust their fuel consumption to short-term price variations and published this Thursday. For low-income households, this gain in purchasing power does not take into account each fuel check.
The higher the price, the lower the consumption.
Clearly, this document shows that the higher the price of fuel, the more the consumption of drivers decreases. When prices increase by 1%, fuel consumption decreases on average by 0.21% 0.40% explains INSEE. This price sensitivity is three times stronger for ‘small rollers’ than for ‘big rollers’, write the authors of this study.
In October 2022, INSEE had already analyzed CB bank card transactions to analyze fuel consumption. For example, on March 12, when the first rebate at the pump of 18 centimes was announced by the government for April 1, daily fuel costs fell suddenly before rising by 50% on April 1. Ditto, on September 1, when the state rebate was reduced to 30 centimes per liter, expenses had then immediately increased by 35%.