Some slight relief is in sight for motorists with the retail price of petrol coming off from its record highs at midnight on Tuesday.
The Department of Minerals and Energy says the price of 93 unleaded petrol will decrease by four cents a litre while 95 will be reduced by one-cent a litre.
However, both grades of diesel will increase by 22 cents a litre, while paraffin will jump 32 cents a litre. The department says LP-Gas users will pay seven-cents more per kilogramme.
The adjustments are attributed to higher oil prices which were balanced by the decline in the slate levy. Miyelani Maluleke is an economist with ABSA.
“It’s a little bit of bad news if you’re a diesel user because the price is going up, but not so bad for petrol users because the price is coming down. From an inflation perspective, these are relatively marginal changes, we don’t really expect this to have much impact on inflation, but the cost impact will be there for lots of businesses and farmers.”
Higher fuel prices to impact households
Economists have warned that higher fuel prices will have an impact on households. In August, petrol went up to R18,30 cents per litre inland, breaching R18 per litre.
This was the highest fuel price increase the country had seen this year.
It said the weakening of the rand against the US dollar and higher international oil prices had led to a higher cost of petrol.
