Petrol price drops by a whopping R1.61

Motorists will welcome the relief especially as the cut comes ahead of the expensive festive season.

The Department of Minerals and Energy has announced that all grades of petrol will decrease by R1.61 cents a litre.

Diesel will decrease by 81 cents and illuminating paraffin by 75 cents.

The decrease would be the fourth since August when petrol prices were at an all-time high of over R10 per litre. In August, the petrol price went down by 27 cents, in September by 55 cents and in October by 47 cents.

Therefore motorists will soon be paying R2.90 less than they were for a litre of petrol five months ago.

The economic factors affecting the over/under recoveries for the period between 31 October and 27 November include the weakened average rand/US dollar exchange rate weakened when compared to the previous period and the average international product prices of petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin decreased.

The average rand/US dollar exchange rate for the period 31 October 2008 to 27 November 2008 was 10.1823 compared to 9.5901 during the previous period.

Meanwhile consumers have been warned to put their December bonuses into savings and not spend them over the festive season as the global economic crisis is expected to deepen.

Article published courtesy of BuaNews