Energy prices in Belgium are currently much lower than in neighbouring countries, with the exception of France where the cost of electricity is lower.
The price both for electricity and especially for natural gas in Belgium is low compared to the prices paid by customers in Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, excluding its southern neighbour France, new figures from the federal energy watchdog CREG showed on Wednesday.
In October 2022, Belgium had the third most expensive electricity bills of the five countries, with prices peaking at around €2,450. But the cost has since fallen, with the average annual bill for a Belgian household coming to €1,170 for electricity in August.
Evolution of electricity price (total bill, including VAT) for household consumption (3.5 MWh). Credit: CREG
That figure is lower than in Germany (€1,356), the Netherlands (€1,208) and the UK (€1,597). Only French households pay less with an average annual bill of €930, largely due to the fact that the price of electricity is highly regulated in the country. This is helped by the fact that around two-thirds of France's energy is produced by nuclear power so was far less susceptible to the volatile LNG prices.
When it comes to natural gas, the average annual bill for a Belgian household in August was €1,284, down from around €3,000 almost a year ago. That is by far the lowest in this part of Europe: German households are at an average annual bill of €1,913, French at €1,701, British at €1,589 and in the Netherlands as much as €2,756 – more than twice as much as in Belgium.
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Households in Belgium paid much less than neighbours (with the exception of electricity in France) because prices are directly indexed to wholesale market prices and therefore fall faster than abroad, CREG noted.
"Belgium is the most liberalised market with very little intervention on pricing and with retail prices very quickly following the evolution of wholesale prices."
