A report out of the International Energy Agency reveals that the Hungarian capital of Budapest had the lowest electricity prices in the EU in October. Meanwhile, the German capital of Berlin ranked as having the most expensive rate in Europe.
German households paid more than four times higher electricity prices on average than Hungarian households in the second half of 2024, reports Magyar Nemzet, based on the IEA study.
In one section of its report, the agency noted the importance of investments in renewables and efforts to make electricity affordable, adding that prices can vary greatly between countries.
Világgazdaság recently wrote on the latest Eurostat figures from October, which show that Germany had the highest household electricity unit price of 41.08 euro cents, while Hungary’s was 9.34 euro cents per kilowatt hour. The EU and slightly lower European averages were about 2.8 times higher than the Budapest tariff, based on a report by the Finnish VaasaETT analysis company. In addition to Germany, electricity was more expensive than 30 euro cents in eight other capitals.
Hungary has maintained such a low level due to its government’s policy of keeping a cap on utility prices. The Hungarian price regulation has been two-tiered since August 2022: The “classic” reduced utility price (36 forints per kilowatt-hour) is valid up to 2,523 kWh of electricity per year, after which a higher, but still reduced, and non-market-based, official price comes into effect. This 70.10 forint tariff was 10.76 euro cents in October, which is the second lowest among the capitals examined.
It is also worth comparing how much the tariffs, whether low or high in absolute terms, burden households. Based on the October figures, the Hungarian Energy and Public Utilities Regulatory Office calculated that the average amount of electricity and gas consumed by a two-earner household with an average income among the capitals examined.
Among the households modeled in this way, a Budapest resident spent 1.7 percent of their income on utilities, while a Brussels resident spent 2.2 percent. Lisbon had the worst figure at 6.1 percent. Berlin came in seventh place with 2.5 percent.
An earlier Eurostat calculation from October showed that in the first half of 2025, the Czech Republic had the highest electricity prices (39.16) in classical purchasing power parity (PPS), followed by Poland (34.96) and Italy (34.40). Hungary once again performed excellently in this comparison with a value of 15.01, which put it in second place after Malta (13.68).
Opposition parties in Hungary have repeatedly called for the Hungarian caps to be cancelled, arguing that the cost is too great.
Brussels has also shown little sympathy for Hungary’s reliance on Russian gas. The EU has called for the government to drop this energy, but if Hungary were to stop importing Russian gas, heating prices for Hungarians would spike, as the caps would no longer be sustainable.
Despite the United States exempting Hungary from its own ban on Russian energy, EU commission head Ursula von der Leyen has been clear that Brussels still expects Budapest to submit a plan to divest itself of Russian energy sources.
Government calculations show that if Hungary were forced by the EU to forego Russian natural gas and oil, tariffs would increase threefold, directly hurting Hungarian citizens. In addition, the price of energy used by businesses would also rise, which, even if they survived, would be passed on to consumers.
The question may arise as to why Brussels has an interest in weakening the economy of a member state and worsening the financial situation of its population, and why politicians who want to take over the government of Hungary support these efforts, Magyar Nemzet asks.
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