Petrol prices expected to fall this July as oil prices ease

With only a few days to go before the Department of Petroleum and Mineral Resources adjusts South Africa’s fuel prices, the Central Energy Fund has provided another batch of petrol price predictions. Motorists nationwide will be glad to hear that price cuts are on the way, even after the National Treasury’s relief comes to an end on 1 July.

Fuel gainz

At the time of writing, the CEF predicts that the price of petrol will fall by about R3/l, while diesel drivers are due a cut of around R4.70/l. The CEF’s figures, while accurate, don’t take the end of the National Treasury’s relief into account, which will add R1.50/l back onto the price of petrol, and R1.97/l onto the price of diesel. What’s left is a more modest reflection of the expected adjustments. After the year we’ve had, we’ll take what we can get.

“From 1 July onwards, the general fuel levy for petrol will return to R4.10 per litre and the general fuel levy for diesel will return to R3.93 per litre,” the National Treasury wrote.

As usual, the price of fuel in South Africa will be adjusted on the first Wednesday of the new month. In this case, that’ll be Wednesday, 1 July. The DMPR and the CEF typically announce the official adjustments on the previous Monday or Tuesday, allowing motorists to prep for the coming hike, or in this case, decrease.

To that end, the CEF’s figures (below) are not final and are subject to change. It, in conjunction with the DMPR, tracks the economic factors that influence the price of fuel. The most influential factors are the price of oil globally, which spiked earlier this year following the war between the US and Iran. Now, prices are finally beginning to settle, leading to the expected fuel price decreases projected by the CEF below.

The CEF also tracks the average Rand/US Dollar exchange rate, the movements of which throughout July have only contributed to a minor decrease in the coming adjustments. The falling price of oil is the biggest contributing factor, which may continue to drop as we move through July.