Worlds Most Expensive Gasoline

The research also looked at average monthly petrol expenditure, compared to average monthly disposable income to calculate what percentage of earnings drivers in each country spend on fuel.

#10 Belgium - 140p per litre: Belgium comes in at number ten with an average price of 140p per litre of unleaded. Disposable income levels in the country are £1,936 per month - 8.7% of which is, on average, spent on petrol.

#9 Eritrea - 141p per litre: The small country of Eritrea in the Horn of Africa is the only non-European state to enter the top ten with an average price of 141p per litre of unleaded.

#9 Sweden - 141p per litre: Sweden comes in joint ninth with the same average price per litre as Eritrea - 141p - as well as the same average monthly spend of £170. However residents in the Scandinavian country have an average disposable income around 12 times the size of those in Eritrea, making the percentage figure just 7.7%.

#7 UK - 142p per litre: Britain emerges as the seventh most expensive country for petrol with the average price for a litre of unleaded sat at 142p per litre. But this will rise again come August, when a 3p per litre hike in fuel duty (confirmed in last month's Budget) is pushed through.

#6 Denmark - 143p per litre: Average prices in Denmark are pegged just above UK costs at 143p per litre of unleaded. However the Dane's average monthly disposable income is higher than the average Brit at £2,124, bringing the population's percentage petrol spend down to 8.1%.

#5 Greece - 145p per litre: Greece's economy has had a rough time of it lately, and the petrol sector is no exception. An average litre of unleaded will set you back 145p. Disposable income in the country is also one of the lowest across the top ten chart, at £680. So with average petrol expenditure at £175, Greeks on average spend a 25% of their income on fuel.

#4 Italy - 146p per litre: Italy comes in at four on the list. It will cost you 146.5p on average for a litre of unleaded. The percentage spend on petrol in the country is also relatively high at just over 15%.

#3 Netherlands - 148p per litre: Another Northern European country creeps onto the list. The Netherlands is at number three with an average per litre price for unleaded of 148p. However the Dutch have a fairly high level of disposable income, at £1,784 - so with an average monthly petrol spend of £179, the percentage figure works out at just over 10%.

#2 Turkey - 162p per litre: Petrol prices take a sharp upwards turn when we reach Turkey. Average per litre prices for unleaded are a huge 162p - a full 20p per litre higher than British costs, on average. But Turkey actually has the second lowest level of disposable income of the ten countries, at an average of £572. So with an average monthly petrol spend of £196, the percentage figure works out a huge 34%.

#1 Norway - 164p per litre: At the top of the charts: Norway. Prices for unleaded in the Scandinavian nation are set at a huge 164p per litre on average. That's 80 times higher than the average petrol prices found in the cheapest country for fuel globally, Venezuela.

But this should be put in context. Norway also has, by some stretch, the highest level of disposable income at a £2,681. That puts average percentage spending on fuel at just over 7%.

High levels of taxation keep fuel expensive in Norway. On the other side, fuel costs are kept low in Venezuela by the left-wing government, at an estimated cost to the economy of £13 billion more than double the education and health budgets.

Paul A. Ebeling, Jnr.

Paul A. Ebeling, Jnr. writes and publishes The Red Roadmaster's Technical Report on the US Major Market Indices, a weekly, highly-regarded financial market letter, read by opinion makers, business leaders and organizations around the world.

Paul A. Ebeling, Jnr has studied the global financial and stock markets since 1984, following a successful business career that included investment banking, and market and business analysis. He is a specialist in equities/commodities, and an accomplished chart reader who advises technicians with regard to Major Indices Resistance/Support Levels.