Цены на топливо: Paraguay

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

Drivers in Paraguay currently pay around $1.178 per liter for gasoline, which works out to roughly $4.46 per US gallon. In local money that is about 7,214 PYG per liter. Diesel is a touch more expensive at $1.343 per liter, an unusual pattern in a country where diesel powers most freight, buses and agricultural machinery. Compared with the global benchmark of $1.484 per liter, Paraguay sits comfortably below average, ranking 45th out of 170 countries surveyed for affordability.

Why Paraguayan Fuel Is Cheaper Than the World Average

Paraguay is a small, landlocked, almost entirely import-dependent fuel market. It produces no crude oil of its own and has only limited refining capacity, so virtually every liter of gasoline and diesel arrives by river barge and tanker truck, mostly routed up the Paraná-Paraguay waterway from Argentina and the Atlantic. That logistics chain adds cost — yet pump prices still land below the international mean. The main reason is a comparatively light fuel-tax structure. Paraguay applies a selective consumption tax (ISC) on fuels plus VAT, but the combined tax burden is far smaller than the punishing excise duties seen across Europe, where taxes alone can exceed the entire Paraguayan pump price.

The other big factor is the guaraní (PYG). Because crude and refined products are priced in dollars on global markets, the exchange rate is the single most important lever on local prices. The guaraní has historically been one of South America's more stable currencies, which has spared Paraguayan drivers the violent price swings suffered by neighbors with weaker money. When the guaraní holds firm against the USD, imported fuel stays affordable; when it slips, pump prices climb regardless of what is happening to the oil price itself.

The Role of Petropar and Pricing Policy

Unlike many import-dependent nations that run heavy consumer subsidies, Paraguay leans mostly on its state-owned distributor, Petropar, to moderate prices rather than on direct cash subsidies. Petropar competes with private chains and has periodically absorbed margin or used inventory timing to soften international price spikes, effectively acting as a price anchor. This is closer to a managed-market approach than a true subsidy regime — there is no bottomless fuel-subsidy bill of the kind that destabilizes budgets in some oil-importing economies. That restraint helps explain why Paraguay avoids both the artificially cheap fuel of heavy subsidizers and the painful prices of high-tax states.

The diesel-above-gasoline pricing tells its own story. With heavy reliance on imported diesel for the trucking and soy-export economy, diesel demand is structurally strong, and global diesel cracks have run high in recent years. For a freight-dependent, agriculture-driven economy, that diesel premium feeds directly into transport and food costs.

How Paraguay Compares Internationally

Sitting mid-table globally, Paraguay is cheaper than many fellow importers but pricier than the world's subsidy giants. It costs noticeably less than Puerto Rico, yet more than crisis-hit markets like Lebanon. Other large importers such as Bangladesh and resource-rich but volatile DR Congo show how differently tax and subsidy choices play out even among non-producers. For the full picture, browse our directory of world fuel prices and see exactly where every country lands.

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