Hungary scraps petrol curbs

Hungary on Tuesday abolished petrol price caps after a fuel shortage led to "panic buying" at petrol stations, with Hungarian energy giant MOL blaming the price limits.

Hungarian media published images of 100-meter-long queues at filling stations nationwide on Tuesday.

Gergely Gulyas, chief of staff for Prime Minister Viktor Orban, blamed the European Union's oil sanctions over the Russia-Ukraine conflict for the fuel problems.

"The government will abolish the petrol price cap at the suggestion of MOL" with immediate effect, Gulyas announced.

"What we feared came true: The oil sanction ... caused perceptible disturbances in Hungary's fuel supply. MOL can't do without imported gasoline," he said.

MOL's executive director Gyorgy Bacsa said earlier on Thursday that the "supply situation is clearly critical, demand has skyrocketed, consumers are stocking up, and panic buying has begun".

A rift between the EU and Hungary deepened on Tuesday when Budapest vetoed an 18 billion euro ($18.8 billion) financial aid package to Kyiv.

Agencies Via Xinhua