Irish fuel prices reach highest level in 18 months
It is estimated that motorists could end up spending more than €300 extra on petrol or diesel this year. I fact, the cost of a litre of petrol or diesel has reached its highest level in 18 months according to the AA.
The average price of a litre of petrol is now 137.7 cent, which is an increase of 1 cent since February. Diesel costs 127.1c per litre on average and that also has increased by 0.7c over the same period.
This highlights the increase in fuel costs and how fuel has reached it’s highest level since August 2015, when the average cost of petrol and diesel stood at 143.6c and 128.8c per litre respectively.
At the beginning of 2016, a litre of petrol cost around €1.20. They calculated on average that there will be a €27 more cost on fuel this month compared with the same month in 2016.
Assuming oil prices do not increase this year, which is very unlikely when we spread that extra monthly cost out over the year to come, it will mean motorists will spend an additional €324 just to keep their car running compared to last year.
The price hike in the past month is in slight contrast to the actual price of Brent crude oil – the type of crude oil that benchmarks prices across the board as it currently stands at about $51 a barrel, a fall of $5 since last month.
At this time last year, the cost of a barrel of oil was around $30 a barrel. Conor Faughnan, the AA’s director of consumer affairs had this to say about the price of fuel increase.
“While the latest increase is by no means the worst month-on-month hike that we’ve seen recently, it marks the sixth successive month in which we have seen prices climb and continues a trend which is of great concern to many motorists,” said
“While it’s easy to say that the factors which cause these increases are outside of our control as a country this simply isn’t the case. The majority of what we pay at the pump is made up of various taxes placed on petrol and diesel and the extent to which we tax fuel spend is something we have direct say over.”
Although the latest increase comes despite the price of a barrel of oil falling by $5 since February it has been noted that tax on fuel is a major factor in the increasing cost of petrol and diesel.
The AA analysis shows that 86.52 cents of the total pump price for a litre of petrol and 73.67 cents of the total per litre cost of diesel consists of various taxes including VAT and duty. Mr Faughan said:
“During the worst years of the recession tax on petrol and diesel increased by 20 cent and 18 cent per litre respectively and the fact that these taxes have outlived the ‘emergency’ actually acts as an anti-stimulus measure making it more difficult for people to commute to work every day,”
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