Welcome to the column.
Last year we talked about almost a year of great inflation in full swing in the United States, but it did not come to the mainland. So how about this year? Will our prices rise this year because of the release of water from the United States? Recently, there is not too good news, that is, the soaring international oil prices, we have said in the past, the international oil prices soaring more than make us car families every week to refuel to spend more money. Oil prices are the lifeblood of industry, all our logistics industry depends on oil prices, when oil prices continue to soar, he will certainly make almost every country prices rise, costs are raised, and then lead to large inflation.
In recent times, international oil prices have indeed risen higher and higher, and on a certain trading day, international oil prices have broken through $100 per barrel, the highest in eight years. Do you remember? For the first two years we have been talking about this low oil price, because of the impact of the new crown epidemic, the economic activity in many parts of the world has stagnated, so the demand for crude oil has decreased, resulting in the first two years of that oil price is really very low, only thirty or forty dollars per barrel. Some oil-producing countries complain that if it goes down this way, it will be cheaper than my extraction costs.
However, who would have thought that in just two years, international oil prices have now seen a high of hundreds of dollars per barrel, and even the current situation is not too good, the crisis in Ukraine is getting worse and worse, and many people are worried about whether the United States may impose stronger sanctions on Russia? What measures? Prohibit your crude oil exports. What did former US President Trump do during his presidency two years ago, he banned any country, business or individual from buying oil from Iran, which caused Iran's oil revenue to plummet.
Now that the situation in Ukraine is so serious, the United States has constantly proposed some new sanctions weapons, including strangling Nord Stream II, so some people are worried about whether the United States may simply sanction Russia in this way. Other countries, individuals, and companies are not allowed to buy oil and gas with Russia.
Let's not say whether the United States is capable of doing this, but if the United States does, it is certain that Russia's oil exports will be greatly reduced, and international oil prices will soar. Russia is now a big oil and gas exporter, the oil price is a bit in short supply, rising, you also strangled the exporter. No wonder, then, many economists predict that international oil prices could rise to $120 a barrel or even $150 a barrel this year.
The spike in oil prices is definitely not a good thing for the United States, why? Because the United States is truly a country on wheels, with a population of more than 300 million people with close to 200 million cars, especially the United States is still facing large inflation today, so many economists predict that if international oil prices soar, then the United States will have inflation of more than 10% this year. But at the same time, the surge in oil prices is obviously not a good thing for the mainland, from the most intuitive point of view, today we go to the gas station to refuel, no. 92 there are many cities that are close to eight, I estimate that another adjustment will be more than eight. No. 98 gasoline may soon enter the era of ten yuan, a liter of gasoline is ten dollars, your fuel tank is added to six or seven hundred yuan, really think about it is a little scared.
Yes, last year, the domestic refined oil price ushered in ten consecutive increases, and this year has risen several times since the beginning, we are really worried that this price adjustment is just a beginning, people who drive, if you feel that the oil price is particularly high, you can drive one less day a week, I go to use public transportation. The problem is that our vast logistics industry can't stop for a day! The various commodities we use, the vegetables and fruits we buy, are all shipped to us by gasoline!
So for a world factory like the mainland, the soaring energy prices will definitely have an impact on our economy. So we have to find out where to get rid of energy dependence, but there is good news, that is, although the amount of oil imported by the mainland is higher than in 2020, the amount of oil imported by us is unprecedentedly smaller than in 2020. This is the first decline in 20 years.
As the world's factory, our energy dependence on foreign countries is very, very high, which has led to a surge in oil imports almost every year, but why is it decreasing in 2021? Not because our economic data is not good, we also shared two days ago, in 2021 our economic data and hit a peak, our per capita GDP exceeded $12,500, and our exports to the United States set a new record.
Yes, while we maintain high-speed production, our oil imports are decreasing. Why? Some people interpret it as such, because the entire 2020 international oil is at a low value, and we are doing this oil reserve with all our strength. You think, when you used to sell for seventy or eighty dollars, in 2020 you only sold thirty or forty dollars, almost all the refineries in China are crazy to buy oil, how much can be stored and how much can be stored. Since there is enough storage in 2020, and international oil prices are soaring in 2021, we have reduced some imports and used a lot of 2020 inventory, which can save some money. This has led to a reduction in our oil imports.
This is certainly one of the reasons, but there is actually a more important reason, that is, the popularity of electric vehicles. Gasoline cars are oil-burning, as long as you have a large number of gasoline vehicles, your demand for oil is rigid. However, electric vehicles are power-consuming, we can use natural gas to generate electricity, although compared to gasoline vehicles, electric vehicles developed relatively late, the number of electric vehicles running on the road today is still far less than that of gasoline vehicles, but this is a trend after all.
Many countries in Europe have enacted regulations that will not sell fuel vehicles at all by 2035. The sales of electric vehicles in the mainland are increasing year by year, and today there may be one electric vehicle in every five vehicles sold. Many consumers are actively choosing electric vehicles, when the use of electric vehicles is getting larger and larger, then of course the use of gasoline vehicles will be reduced. Especially do not know whether everyone usually sits on the bus, now many cities of buses are replaced by electric vehicles, there is no fuel car, which will indeed greatly reduce the use of gasoline.
You can imagine, maybe in another decade, the mainland, like many european countries, basically do not sell fuel vehicles, and even after the existing fuel vehicles are consumed in the next decade, more than half of the cars running on the streets on the mainland may be electric vehicles. At that point, our demand for oil will naturally decrease.
And to be honest, the high oil prices in recent times may still be a big boost to the development of electric vehicles. You think, when the oil price was relatively low in the first two years, there were some private gas stations that were often discounted, and even I really saw No. 92 gasoline selling for about four dollars and five dollars a liter, and at that time, the advantages of many electric vehicles were not obvious enough. Especially in the first two years, the electric vehicle power loss situation is very serious, in the northeast ice and snow when the electric car can not run many kilometers, and charging if you find a social charging pile price is still relatively expensive, so some people after the calculation of the advantages of electric vehicles are not so big.
But now it's different, immediately gasoline to the ten times, you add a tank of oil really four or five hundred dollars, but people fill the electric car with their own electric pile, then spend a dozen, twenty dollars on it, this cost comparison is indeed electric vehicle advantage is very huge. So we say that if the situation in Ukraine is further destroyed, then there is a good chance that the international oil price will continue to soar, and after it really reaches $120 a barrel and $150 per barrel, the price of gasoline will really go up to the sky.
And then for electric cars, that's a big plus. This year, many people really have a good calculation when buying a car, and if I refuel repeatedly in a month, I am afraid that it will cost one or two thousand yuan, and twenty thousand yuan a year. The cost of getting an electric car is almost negligible. To be honest, as the world's factory, our production capacity is very, very large, but our dependence on foreign oil is also very large. No way, we consume too much, so we almost have to buy oil with the whole world. There's a certain insecurity to a greater or lesser extent, and we're also very worried about what we're going to do if we get stuck in the neck of someone else on energy issues. However, if we vigorously develop electric vehicles, as we did last year, we reduce oil imports and reduce the external dependence of oil, will our economy be healthier and safer in the future?
