Fuel prices in Philippines

Fuel Prices in the Philippines: What You Pay at the Pump and Why

Drivers in the Philippines currently pay around $1.284 per liter of gasoline, which works out to roughly $4.86 per US gallon. In local terms that is about ₱78.72 per liter. Diesel sits slightly lower at about $1.273 per liter, a narrow gap that matters in a country where jeepneys, buses, and freight trucks run heavily on diesel.

Compared with the rest of the world, the Philippines is on the cheaper side. The global average is about $1.484 per liter, and the country ranks 58th out of 170 tracked markets — meaning fuel here costs less than in roughly two-thirds of the world. You can see how that stacks up against every other country on our world fuel prices overview.

Why Filipinos Pay What They Pay

The single biggest factor is that the Philippines is a net oil importer. With only modest domestic production, the country buys most of its crude and refined products from abroad, so pump prices track global oil markets almost in real time. Major retailers like Petron, Shell, and Caltex publish weekly price adjustments every Tuesday that reflect the previous week's movements in Singapore's Mean of Platts (MOPS) benchmark.

The second factor is the peso-to-dollar exchange rate. Because crude is priced in US dollars, a weaker peso makes every imported barrel more expensive in local currency, even when the dollar price of oil is flat. This currency channel is why prices at the pump can creep up during periods of peso depreciation regardless of what is happening in the oil market itself.

Taxes form the third layer. Under the TRAIN law that took effect in 2018, the Philippines applies a fixed excise tax per liter on gasoline and diesel, plus 12% VAT layered on top. These taxes are a meaningful share of the retail price, though they are lower than the heavy fuel duties seen across much of Europe — one reason Filipino pump prices stay below the world average.

The Ten-Year Trend

Looking at the historical record from July 2016 to June 2026, the average gasoline price was about $0.937 per liter. The cheapest point on record came on 4 May 2020, at just $0.612 per liter, during the early-pandemic collapse in global oil demand when crude briefly traded at historic lows. The most expensive point was much more recent — 13 April 2026, at $1.574 per liter.

That arc tells a clear story: today's $1.284 is well above the decade average, and prices have spent the last few years climbing toward record territory before easing slightly. The combination of post-pandemic demand recovery, a softer peso, and periodic supply shocks has pushed the baseline structurally higher than it was in the 2016–2020 window.

This import-and-currency dynamic is common across developing economies. Resource-rich exporters like Suriname and Brazil can buffer pump prices with domestic supply and subsidies, while smaller import-dependent markets such as Benin and Togo face the same exchange-rate exposure the Philippines does.

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