Petrol price increase

Nicolette Dirk, finance writer, Justmoney.co.za

The petrol price will likely increase by 5c next week. This is according to Laura Campbell, chief economist for Econometrix. Campbell predicts that a further 20 c/ litre will be added to the price of petrol in April on account of an increase in the fuel and Road Accident Fund levies.

Earlier this month petrol went up by by 36 cents and economists predict that consumers would have to fork out up to 60c more on overall fuel costs by the beginning of next month. Since the beginning of this year, consumers endured two petrol price hikes that collectively came to 75c/litre.

“Even though there has been an average over recovery on petrol in March, the price of petrol is expected to increase for the fifth consecutive month at the beginning of April, by 5c/l,” said Campbell.

Campbell pointed out that consumers are in for a double whammy every April when the fuel levy and Road Accident Fund levy are adjusted following the presentation of the National Budget in February.

“The price of diesel is expected to decline on 2 April after having increased in the past four months since the average over recovery on diesel in the month of March will have been greater than the increase in the levies,” said Campbell.

She added that the price of diesel is expected to decline by around 10c/litre at the beginning of April. The average over recovery on petrol and diesel in March have been a function of the strengthening of the Rand exchange rate to around R10.78 in the month to date compared with an average of R10.94 in February. “Furthermore, the Dollar price of Brent crude oil has declined in March, compared with February,” said Campbell.

Some relief in sight

Mike Schüssler of economists.co.za told Fin24 that consumers are already strained and the little petrol price relief possibly from May onwards would be wonderful for many.

"However, electricity prices are on the up again then," he said.

Petrol price increase

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