South Africans official fuel prices for July

The Central Energy Fund has published the official fuel price adjustments for July, showing a massive increase at the pumps.

According to the CEF, both petrol and diesel prices have climbed up significantly from today (Wednesday, 1 July), with illuminating paraffin also showing a major spike in price.

These are the official changes:

• Petrol 95: increase of R1.72 per litre
• Petrol 93: increase of R1.63 per litre
• Diesel 0.05%: increase of R1.73 per litre
• Diesel 0.005%: increase of R1.69 per litre
• Illuminating Paraffin: increase of R2.14 per litre

The average international product prices for petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin increased during the period under review.

The rand appreciated against the US dollar during the period under review, on average, when compared to the previous period. The average rand/US dollar exchange rate for the period 29 May 2020 to 25 June 2020 was R17.127 compared to R18.172 during the previous period.

This led to a lower contribution to the Basic Fuel Prices on petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin by 33.41 cents per litre, 33.55 cents per litre and 30.13 cents per litre respectively.

The price changes are significant, but not entirely unexpected, with groups like the Automobile Association previously noting that prices were expected to increase in-line with growing demand on oil products around the world.

Brent Crude is currently trading at around $41 per barrel.

The rand is significantly softer in 2020 due to the global Covid-19 pandemic, and weak fundamentals.

“We cannot overstate the effect that the rand’s collapse is currently having on fuel users: if the rand had remained at its pre-Covid-19 levels, fuel users would likely be seeing a reduction in fuel prices in the order of 75 cents a litre next month,” the AA said in a recent statement.

This is how the increases have reflected at the pumps from today (Wednesday).

Credit: @BusinessTech