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Back to Motoring news

Motoring news

Petrol price rise 'accelerating'

22/05/2009

The recent rise in petrol prices accelerated between mid-April and mid-May, an industry measure has shown.

The national average for unleaded petrol currently stood at 97.7p per litre, while diesel averages 103.5p, according to the AA's fuel price report.

For unleaded petrol, this represents a 2.67p increase on a month earlier - more than the 2.33p fuel-only increase (ignoring the effect of increased duty and VAT in the budget) seen in the previous report. The survey points out that a litre of unleaded petrol is now back above £1 on many motorway forecourts and at garages in rural areas.

Meanwhile, although diesel increased by only 0.8p on average over the same time period, the group says it has seen prices rise to almost 109p a litre at motorway services - something that is "beyond what the AA considers reasonable", even considering the higher running costs at such locations.

And prices may already be even higher than the AA's measurement. PetrolPrices.com, which pulls together data from 9,642 garages, currently lists the average cost of a litre of unleaded petrol as 99.1p, with diesel costing 103.8p.

AA president Edmund King said that although prices were not yet as high as last summer, many recession-hit motorists would find the increases difficult to deal with.

"If recovery from recession is to be consumer-led, the last thing we need is excessive pricing at the pumps," he said.

Earlier this month, the Independent newspaper claimed that since Labour took control of the country in 1997 the cost of motoring had fallen in real terms, while the cost of public transport had become more expensive.