SA's highest ever petrol hike looms

It is expected that petrol will increase by 45 to 60 cents a litre and this will bring the price of unleaded petrol to about R8 a litre.

Economist Chris Hart told BuaNews on Wednesday that the petrol hike expected in April is due to the weak currency and the higher crude oil prices.

“Although we are anticipating stability in the middle of the year, but by the end of the year, petrol price will be higher than it is now, just above R8 a litre,” he said.

Hart said he does not foresee any petrol price decrease in the near future.

The Department of Minerals and Energy said the increase is due to higher prices of crude oil.

According to economists, this would bring the petrol price to the highest peak ever.

Earlier this month, diesel went up by seven cents per litre while paraffin went up by two cents per litre and petrol by 17 cents a litre.

However, the department said this was due to certain economic factors which affected the unit over and under-recoveries for the period 27 December 2007 to 31 January 2008.

The average international product prices of petrol increased whilst Diesel and Illuminating paraffin decreased.

The average Rand/US Dollar exchange rate for the same period was 6.9838 compared to 6.8433 during the previous period.

Earlier this year, the Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni warned that the consumer inflation continued its upward trend, measuring 8.6% in December 2007.

Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee decided it was appropriate to leave the repo rate unchanged at 11% per annum.

Article published courtesy of BuaNews