Johannesburg - It's not like South Africans don’t already have enough to worry about, what with sporadic electricity supply, rising interest rates and a rate of inflation that is sucker punching most pay cheques.
Unfortunately it looks as though the price of fuel is set to increase again at the beginning of March, with the latest data from the Central Energy Fund (CEF) pointing towards a sharp rise in the petrol price and a more modest diesel price hike.
The latest daily snapshot from the CEF implies a month-end petrol price increase of around R1.18 for 95 unleaded and R1.24 for 93 unleaded, but the usual disclaimer applies here in that a lot of things can still happen between now and the end of the month, and none of these figures are official yet.
An increase of R1.18 would raise the price of 95 Unleaded petrol to R22.21 at the coast and R22.86 in the inland regions, where 93 ULP would rise to R22.62.
Diesel is also looking set for an increase, albeit a more palatable rise of around 36 cents for both grades, while illuminating paraffin could see a hike of around 42 cents, assuming the current trends persist between now and the end of February.
Both the rand and international oil prices are contributing towards the current under-recovery that will eventually lead to next month’s petrol price increase. International petrol prices currently account for the bulk of the deficit, at 88 cents, while our weaker currency is taking a 30 cent toll. Were it not for the latter, diesel would be looking set for an increase of just four cents.
According to the the news agency Xinhua, the price of Brent crude oil increased by 8.1 percent last week, and also edged slightly higher on Monday as the markets weighed in on Russia’s plan to cut oil production, apparently in retaliation of the price cap imposed by Western nations.
On February 13, Brent crude oil was trading at $86.60 per barrel, while the rand was listed at R17.84 to the US dollar.