India, in Infographics: Energy & Geopolitics

India Is Dodging The Energy Inflation That Hit The World’s Pumps

Retail Petrol In 19 Of The Top-20 Economies, Indexed To 100 At The Eve Of The War (Late Feb 2026), Across The 2026 Iran War Oil Shock (Brent $61 → $118). Each Line Is A Country’s Local-Currency Pump Price In Its Own Colour, With India In Saffron. Hover To Trace One, Or Use The Chips To Group The Lines By Policy — Full Pass-Through, Managed, Or State-Set. The Same Shock, 19 Very Different Outcomes.

Select One Or More Countries

Or Group By Policy

Tap Countries Or A Line To Isolate Them; Tap A Policy Group To Select All Its Members. Hover Any Line For Its Pump Prices. Turkey Excluded (Lira Distortion).

Lines Are National-Average Retail Petrol, Local Currency, Indexed To 100 At The Eve Of The War (Late Feb 2026). Two Points Are Firm — That Base And The Current Pump (Sept 2026, From GlobalPetrolPrices’ Since-War Tracker); The Points Between Trace The Brent Timeline And Are Indicative. Colour Marks Policy: Full Pass-Through, Managed, Or State-Set. Turkey Excluded (Lira Distortion). Japan Spiked To A Record Mid-War, Then A Subsidy Clawed It Back To About +10%. Hover A Line For Its Actual Pump Prices.

India, Dodged It

+7%

A March Excise And Import-Duty Cut, Plus State Oil Firms Absorbing Losses, Held India’s National Pump To +7% While The Hardest-Hit Paid Up To 42% More. Same Barrel, A Very Different Bill.

The Policy Gap

34 Pts

The US Pump Rose 42%, India’s Just 7% — A 34-Point Gap That Opened Not On The Oil Market But On Tax And Subsidy Desks.

The US, Hit Hardest

+42%

American Petrol Rose About 42% — The Steepest Of Any Big Economy — As The Crude Spike Passed Straight To The Pump. Germany Was Close Behind, At A National Record.

Japan, Subsidy-Capped

+10%

Japan Spiked To A Record ~¥190 Mid-War, Then A Government Subsidy Clawed The Pump Back To About +10% — Roughly A Third Of What Full Pass-Through Would Have Cost.

What The Chart Says

A Barrel Of Oil Is Global; A Litre Of Petrol Is Political. The 2026 Iran War Sent Brent From $61 To $118 In A Matter Of Weeks, And Every Economy Bought From The Same Spiking Market. Yet An American Driver Paid About 42% More By September, And A German One Hit A National Record, While An Indian Driver Paid Just 7% More, A Brazilian 4%, And A Japanese One — Behind A State Subsidy — About 10%. Nothing About The Oil Explains That Gap. It Is Tax Cuts, Fuel Subsidies, State-Set Prices And Public Oil Companies — The Choices Governments Make About Who Absorbs A Shock. The Pump Is Where The World Price Meets National Politics, And In 2026 The Politics Won By A Factor Of Six. All Figures Are The Change Since The Eve Of The War.

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Free To Use Anywhere With Credit To politypolicy.com

Reading The Chart

The Free-Market Pumps Took The Full Hit. The US (+42%), Indonesia (+38%), Australia (+36%), Germany (+31%) And Canada (+30%) Passed The Crude Spike Straight Through. Where A Temporary Tax Cut Existed — Germany, Australia — It Expired, And September Set Records.
The Managed Economies Barely Moved. India (+7%) Held Its National Pump With A March Excise And Import-Duty Cut And State Oil Firms Absorbing Losses; Brazil (+4%) Was Shielded By Petrobras’ Domestic Pricing; Mexico, China, Russia And Korea Used Excise Stabilisers And Price Caps To Keep The Rise In Single-To-Low-Double Digits.
Saudi Arabia Broke The Link Entirely. Its Pump Is Fixed By The State Each Month — A Flat Line Straight Through The War. Japan Came Closest To Holding: After Spiking To A Record ~¥190 Mid-War, A Fuel Subsidy Clawed The Pump Back To About +10%, Roughly A Third Of A Full Pass-Through.
The Shock Came In Two Waves. Crude Peaked Near $118 In Late March, Fell Back To ~$70 By July After A Ceasefire, Then Surged Again To ~$109 In September On Renewed Strikes. For Most Countries The September Reading Is At Or Near The Post-War High — The Pain Is Current, Not Past.

How This Was Built

The Prices

National-Average Retail Petrol In Local Currency, One Grade Per Country, Indexed To 100 At The Eve Of The War — The Last Pre-War Reading, About 23 February 2026. Two Firm, Sourced Points Anchor Each Line: That Base And The Current Pump (September 2026), Whose Change Comes From GlobalPetrolPrices.com’s “Since The War In Iran” Tracker, Cross-Checked Against National Reporting. The Points Between Trace The Crude Timeline And Are Indicative. Turkey Is Excluded — Its +51% Is Lira Depreciation, Not Fuel.

The Oil Shock

Brent Crude Ran From ~$61 In February 2026 To ~$118 By Late March As The Iran War Closed In On The Strait Of Hormuz, Fell To ~$70 On An April Ceasefire, Then Surged To ~$109 By September (CNBC Reported Brent At Its Highest Since May). Timeline From Gulf News And CNBC. The March Peak Is Annotated, Not Plotted Per Country.

Sources: GlobalPetrolPrices.com (Since-War Tracker, National-Average Retail Petrol, Local Currency) And US EIA For Prices; CNBC, Business Standard & Al Jazeera (India’s March Duty Cut); The Local & Yahoo Finance (Germany’s Record); Japan Today (Japan’s Subsidy); Gulf News & CNBC (The Brent Timeline). Retrieved 19 September 2026.