The price of heating oil will also drop, shedding 7.1 cents to EUR 0.88, energy company Petrol said in a press release on Monday.

Diesel will reach the lowest price since December 2010, when it stood at EUR 1.216 per litre, while petrol will be sold at the lowest price since October 2011 (EUR 1.287 for regular ad EUR 1.326 for premium).

The price reduction comes despite the government's decision to increase excise duties on petrol from EUR 0.553 to EUR 0.563 per litre and for diesel from EUR 0.45 to EUR 0.46 per litre.

Finance Minister Dušan Mramor told the press after Monday's session of the government that while the government had been keeping excise duties level, it decided that it would raise them by one cent per litre during the latest fall in prices.

"If there are price drops in the future, we will not change excise duties," Mramor said, adding that prices of fuels are expected to start increasing again in March or June. The government will neutralise these hikes by lowering excise duties the, he pledged.

Retail prices of petroleum products are adjusted every two weeks in line with a government pricing model based on trends on the global oil market and the US dollar-euro exchange rate.