Johannesburg - Following last month’s fuel price increases, which ranged from 25 cents a litre for petrol and 42 c/l for diesel, South African motorists will have to fork out even more from Wednesday, November 1, although this time those driving petrol-powered cars are getting off comparatively lightly.
The price of petrol is set rise by 4 cents a litre from midnight, while diesel will go up by 23 cents for the standard 500ppm variety and 27 cents in the case of low-sulphur 50ppm.
Here’s what you’ll be paying at the forecourts:
* As diesel prices are not regulated, they do vary from forecourt to forecourt. Our figures are an estimation based on a survey of five stations in Cape Town and five in Johannesburg. The prices varied by up to 45 cents a litre in each region, so it pays to shop around.
Weak rand to blame
According to the Department of Energy, November’s increases are mainly due to the South African rand, which weakened to an average of R13.62 in the October review period on which next month’s prices are based, from the previous month’s R13.13 average.
This counterbalanced the international petrol prices, which were actually lower in the month of October, although diesel prices were higher during the same period.
Had the rand remained stable, however, the petrol price would actually have decreased by 17 cents a litre, while the diesel increase would have been marginal.
The future outlook is even bleaker however, with the rand having plunged well below October’s R13.62 average since Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba’s medium-term budget speech, which painted a bleak picture of South Africa’s debt outlook. In fact, the local currency has been trading below the R14 mark since last Wednesday.
On top of this experts are not expecting any oil price relief in the near future as Opec is set to prolong its output cut with non-Opec partners until at least mid-2018.
Although it’s too early to predict December’s fuel price increase, the average over-recovery for the month thus far is pointing towards a 51 cent increase for petrol and a 64 cent hike for diesel.