July Fuel Prices and August Forecast
Fuel price recoveries remain positive for August, but the strong gains seen at the start of July have weakened as global oil risks increase.
Petrol’s over-recovery has fallen from about R2.50/litre to roughly R1.60/litre, while diesel has dropped from around R3.50/litre to about R1.60/litre.
The earlier over-recovery was driven by oil prices easing towards about $70 a barrel on hopes that the US-Iran conflict was ending. However, renewed hostilities after talks collapsed have pushed oil prices upward again, creating uncertainty for the final August adjustment.
Motorists are still likely to see lower pump prices in August if current projections hold, although prices remain well above pre-war levels.
Petrol is about R6.00/litre higher and diesel about R7.22/litre higher than before the conflict, with projected August prices still expected to be R4.40 to R5.60/litre above February levels.
Source: BusinessTech