The paper also noted that economic growth could also be a factor for the increase in consumption. According to the paper, in the period of December 2014 – February 2015, Hungarian consumers used 3.662 billion cubic meters of natural gas, 54,000 cubic meters more than the previous winter.

The data suggest that Hungarian households alone used up 1.111 bln cubic meters of gas during winter, 6.5% more than in the previous year, while electricity consumption reached 11,235 GWh, up from 10,883 GWh a year earlier.

The paper added that after a combined 20% cut in 2013, the retail price of gas fell 6.5% from April 2014, retail electricity prices fell 5.7% from last September and district heating prices fell 3.3% from October as part of the government-mandated price reductions.