Violent protests in France over a now-shelved plan to raise gasoline taxes highlight the country’s comparatively high pump prices.
The big picture: People around the world pay vastly different prices to fuel their gasoline-powered vehicles, depending on how the country in which they live subsidizes or taxes the fuel. The chart above offers a snapshot of four countries with different price profiles — oil-rich Saudi Arabia subsidizes its gasoline much more than most other countries; France, along with most Western European nations, has high taxes while car-dependent America has relatively low prices compared to its global counterparts.