BELGIUM: THE PRICE OF POWER

[BIZ/INFRA: Brussels, March 16]
Belgian industrial users pay 20% more for their electricity than their German, Dutch and French colleagues, according to the weekly ‘Trends’. Both the price of electricity and that for natural gas have increased in recent months by dozens of percentage points. In comparison with 2004, the price of electricity has risen by 56%. The initial costs are higher than the index rise in the cost of living.

‘Energy costs are making us less competitive,’ says Peter Janssen, Chief Technology Office of the ice manufacture Glacio. Calculations in trends show that energy bills are 4% of the total cost of the industrial sector, which is much higher than in neighboring countries. Families and businesses that use little power are spared from the rise and pay lower prices however.

(Source: Trends)
http://www.trends.be/