Athens lifts the diesel subsidy to 15 cents as fuel prices stay near record highs

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told his cabinet on Wednesday that the state subsidy on diesel would rise from 10 euro cents a litre to 15 for the first 15 days of October. Combined with discounts the refiners have offered, the cut at the pump is 20 euro cents a litre. He said the package would be reviewed every 15 days. He also said the government would try to keep heating oil under 1.75 euros a litre, the price at which the last heating season ended. Heating oil sales are due to start by 15 October, and the details of that cap are expected before then.

The numbers that prompted the announcement are already on the boards. Ta Nea reported a national average of 2.207 euros a litre for unleaded 95 on 29 September, and 2.214 euros for diesel. Those are increases of about 26 percent and 42 percent since 28 February 2026, the day the United States and Israel began strikes on Iran. Mitsotakis framed the subsidy as a way to avoid a domestic crisis stacked on a global one. At about 1.13 dollars to the euro, the 15 cent diesel subsidy is roughly 17 US cents, and the 20 cent combined cut is about 23 US cents.

A 15-day window is the design, not an accident. The government does not want a subsidy that outlives the price spike, and it does not want to fix a rate into November while the war premium on crude is still moving. Reviewing every fortnight lets the finance ministry match the next order to the next set of pump prices. It also lets the opposition say the help is temporary by construction. Both readings fit the text Mitsotakis used.

Heating oil is the sharper political number. Greek households buy a winter's supply in a short autumn window, and the memory of recent winters is a queue at the distributor and a bill that moved faster than wages. Holding the price under 1.75 euros, if the government can do it, matters more to a family budget than a 5 cent rise in the diesel subsidy. The method has not been published. A cap can be a subsidy to suppliers, a tax cut, or a request to refiners. Wednesday's statement promised the method before sales open.

The fiscal cost sits in that missing method. Five extra cents on diesel for 15 days is a knowable sum once the ministry publishes volumes. A heating-oil ceiling for a full season is not, because the volume depends on the weather and on whether households buy early if they think the cap will slip. Mitsotakis has tied the review to events. Those events are the Iran war, the freight cost of fuel into the Mediterranean, and the refiner discounts that currently make up a quarter of the 20 cent diesel cut. If the refiners pull the discount, the state either adds the difference or the pump price rises by the same amount.

For now the operative facts are the ones dated Wednesday and Thursday. Diesel subsidy at 15 cents through mid-October. A 20 cent combined reduction while the refiner discount holds. A heating-oil aim of 1.75 euros, details before 15 October. Pump prices of 2.207 and 2.214 euros on 29 September. And a review date already written into the announcement, 15 days out.