Cheaper fuel ahead for Australian motorists

The average Australian price of unleaded petrol fell 2.5 cents to 141.6 cents a litre last week, data from the Australian Institute of Petroleum showed today.

The national average metropolitan price fell by 3.2 cents to 139.7 cents a litre, while the regional average price fell 0.9 of a cent to 145.6 cents a litre.

Commsec economist Savanth Sebastian said the fall in petrol costs had been “great news” for motorists and there should be cheaper prices on offer.

“The wholesale price of fuel has fallen by over eight cents a litre in the past three weeks and the retail price has only fallen by just less than five cents a litre,” he said in a statement.

“In other words, petrol retailers are still playing catch up and it should ensure that pump prices fall by around another two-three cents a litre over the next week.’

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Mr Sebastian said motorists should take advantage of the cheaper fuel while it lasted, as confidence returning to financial markets would lift prices for commodities, such as oil.

“And as such there are signs that the Singapore unleaded price is reversing tack and is now rising, which will feed through to domestic pump prices over the next month,” he said.

Australian fuel prices are based on the cost of Singapore petrol.

The key Singapore unleaded petrol price rose by $A2.51 (2.3 per cent) to $113.63 a barrel in the past week.

The average petrol price fell in all cities during the past week.

Darwin remained the city with the dearest average price, down 0.9 cents to 152.0 cents a litre, while Melbourne had the cheapest unleaded fuel, falling 4.9 cents to 136.1 cents a litre.