We’re less than two weeks away from August’s official petrol, diesel and paraffin price change — officially kicking in on Wednesday, 2 August – and they’re not looking so hot. They might not stay that way, though. Don’t forget, these are just predictions, made possible by the Central Energy Fund’s (CEF) data and don’t reflect the real price we’ll see added to the pumps.
That said… It’s not often the CEF is far off the mark. The figures presented below are likely to be similar to the real price come August, which is decided by the Department of Energy (DoE). It makes sense. Both the CEF and DoE use similar methods to determine the month’s changes and forecasts, involving the current Rand/Dollar exchange and the price of oil globally.
It’s not so bad (for petrol drivers)
Usually, we like to poke fun at the diesel drivers since they’re often favoured by the DoE when it comes to a new month’s fuel prices. Lately, though, that hasn’t been the case. Just last month, diesel drivers were forced to roll around in the dirt usually occupied by the country’s petrol drivers. And it might be happening again, with petrol drivers joining in the fun.
Here are the fuel price predictions (so far) for August 2023:
- Petrol 95: increase of 19 cents per litre (R0.19)
- Petrol 93: increase of 13 cents per litre (R0.13)
- Diesel 0.05%: increase of 53 cents per litre (R0.53)
- Diesel 0.005%: increase of 53 cents per litre (R0.53)
- Illuminating Paraffin: increase of 53 cents per litre (R0.53)
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We can’t promise these numbers will be correct by the time Wednesday, 2 August rolls ’round. We can’t even promise they won’t get worse in the two weeks until the DoE is forced to make its decision. Who knows? One slip-up at Eskom’s power stations (and let’s be honest, that’s likely), and we could be looking at an even more expensive August.