Well, it was fun while it lasted. For most of January, it looked like South Africa would recieve yet another petrol and diesel price decrease. Unfortunately the predictions for February’s fuel prices have taken a turn in the wrong direction. The country is facing an increase in its fuel prices and with just over a week to go until the changes become official, there’s not much time to turn it back around.
Still, the (potential) increases aren’t as bad as months gone by. In fact, they’re rather reasonable. Relatively speaking, of course.
Get your petrol while it’s still “cheap”
Before becoming lost in misery, remember that these predictions made by the Central Energy Fund (CEF) are not final. The CEF makes its predictions based on the current price of refined oil and the current dollar/rand exchange that’s needed to purchase the oil.
The real prices are decided by the Department of Energy before the first Wednesday of the new month – once all mitigating factors have been taken in and assessed. In this case, the official change is taking place on Wednesday, 1 February.
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Here are the predicted petrol and diesel prices for February 2023 (data captured by the CEF on 20 January):
- Petrol 95: increase of 25 cents per litre (R0.25)
- Petrol 93: increase of 32 cents per litre (R0.32)
- Diesel 0.05%: increase of 5 cents per litre (R0.05)
- Diesel 0.005%: decrease of 6 cents per litre (R0.06)
- Illuminating Paraffin: increase of 8 cents per litre (R0.08)
It’s not great, yes. But it’s not as bad as it could be. Diesel drivers (especially 0.005% drivers) in particular could escape more or less unscathed. Of course, there’s still time for the country to turn this around in the eight days until the official change. Or, it could send us hurtling down a worse path than we’re on now. Just… don’t get your hopes up.
Source: Central Energy Fund