• The Central Energy Fund (CEF) says that petrol and diesel prices are expected to increase in August.
• Both grades of petrol will see an increase of around 36 cents per litre, while diesel prices could be hiked by as much as 72 cents per litre.
• Diesel will see its second price increase in the same amount of months.

South Africa’s Central Energy Fund (CEF) has warned motorists that there may be another hike to petrol prices in the month of August 2023.

Both the price of diesel and petrol are expected to rise, with the CEF saying that petrol (both 95 and 93 grades) is likely to see an increase of 36 cents per litre.

Diesel will see an even bigger increase, a hike of around 72 cents per litre.

This latest hike provides another increase for fuel prices that have faced a turbulent year. Motorists received a slight break in July when price for both grades of petrol decreased, as well as prices for illuminating paraffin and liquid petroleum gas (LPG).

July saw petrol prices decrease by 24 cents per litre for 93 grade, and 17 cents per litre for 95 grade. However, diesel prices have risen unabated for the last two months after seeing some decline in June.

”The data is showing that the main driver behind the expected increases is international oil prices, which escalated steadily throughout the month,” Layton Beard, spokesperson for the Automobile Association (AA) told SABC News.

“Easing some of the pressure on fuel prices is the rand, which improved against the US dollar throughout the month. The strengthening of the local currency is ensuring the expected fuel increases are not higher but this is not doing enough to avoid the hikes,” Beard added.

The global economic markets have a tendency to affect fuel prices in South Africa. Fluctuations in the international price of Brent Crude oil can affect SA’s prices, as well as the Dollar/Rand exchange rate since the country purchases its oil in dollars.

South Africa’s Rand briefly hit its best level since February against the USD in the last 24 hours, reports Fin24. This as the American Federal Reserve is expected to begin bringing down inflation in the US.

The Rand was trading at R17.44 to the Dollar on Thursday afternoon. Its best levels since February a few after it was trading above R19 in July.

[Image – Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash]