• According to the CEF, South Africans could see a further petrol price decrease heading into May 2025.
• Both grades of petrol could decrease by around 19 cents per litre, with diesel falling by 37 cents.
• However if the Rand continues to weaken against the US Dollar, these wins may be wiped out.

As April 2025 comes to an end with yet another long weekend, South Africans are heading for yet another decrease in the price of petrol heading into May. This is according to month-end data from the Central Energy Fund (CEF), which the Department of Mineral Resources uses to base the official nationwide changes to prices of combustibles.

Following yet another decrease in pricing from April and March before that, the May 2025 prices are set to become a bit cheaper across the board if the CEF’s current model holds true. Seeing as the month is almost as its end, these figures are likely to change little in the next few days unless something drastic impacts the price of crude oil or the Rand-Dollar exchange rate.

Expected changes to the price of petrol and other fuels in May 2025

• Petrol 93 to decrease by 18 cents per litre,
• Petrol 95 to decrease by 19 cents per litre,
• Diesel 0.05 percent to decrease by 37 cents per litre,
• Diesel 0.005 percent to decrease by 37 per litre,
• Illuminating Paraffin (wholesale) to decrease by 28 cents per litre.

Small slumps in pricing are to be expected across the board of the CEF’s projection holds firm, allowing motorists another short sigh of relief. The biggest decreases are coming to both grades of diesel, which are set to become cheaper by 37 cents per the projection.

Compared to last month, we can see the basic fuel price trend downwards as we near the beginning of April, and continue to be stable with a small decline nearing the end of the month. The change will be welcomed by South Africans who just avoided a 0.5 percent VAT hike.

They are also surprising given the economic situation playing out globally at the moment. The markets crashed at the beginning of April after the United States announced sweeping trade tariff increases for almost all countries it was trading with.

Even though the tariffs were rolled back to only 10 percent per country, excluding China, investors internationally are still cautious that more disruptions caused by the Donald Trump administration could teeter the global economy towards a recession.

Motorists should remember that the CEF’s predictions are just that, and looking at the current USD to ZAR exchange rate of nearly R19 to the USD, we may actually see a small increase if the Rand continues to fall further into May, or if an increase Slate Levy is applied by the DMR. This is because South Africa purchases petroleum products in USD.