Johannesburg - Motorists are getting caught in something of a tug of war between falling international oil prices and an ever weakening rand.
This is how the AA aptly describes scenario painted by mid-month fuel price data released by the Central Energy Department.
The good news is that there are unlikely to be any big shocks next month as the currency and oil prices are mostly balancing each other out, with the data, as it stands mid-month, showing a two cents a litre rise for unleaded 93 petrol, a three cent drop for 95 and an increase of between one and three cents for diesel.
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“All fuel types are showing the same picture: the benefit of lower oil prices is being offset by a weaker exchange rate,” the AA said. “The nett result is that the mid-month picture shows only small changes in fuel prices where they might otherwise have been considerably lower.”
And that's the bad news. We would have been looking at a 21 cents a litre drop in the price of 93 unleaded if the currency hadn't depreciated during the month.
LARGER INCREASE POSSIBLE?
Given that there's almost half a month left, any further knocks taken by the rand could result in a larger fuel price increase for December, if international oil prices don't fall with it.
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