Motorists should brace themselves for a hefty petrol price increase in November.

Preliminary data from the Central Energy Fund shows that the petrol price will likely go up by about 98 cents per litre. The price of diesel will likely increase by 141 cents per litre.

The price of paraffin is expected to go up by 142 cents per litre.

The Automobile Association says the expected hikes in diesel and paraffin would be the largest in South African history.

The association says R20 a litre for petrol is now a realistic scenario before the end of 2021.

Automobile Association Layton beard says, “This will push the 95 unleaded petrol inland above R19 per litre and R17 a litre for diesel. Taking this potential increase in to account, the price of a litre of fuel in land will have increased from R14 86 in January to R19 30 a litre in November.”

The increase is as a result of high oil prices and a weak rand exchange rate against the dollar.

Brent crude oil is trading at about 85 dollars a barrel following a steady rise since the fourth week of August.

Chief economist Miyelani Mkhabela says, “It went to a level that was not expected in 2021. We were expecting it to move to around R18.30. This will really cause a lot of problems to motorists, but with regard to what we have seen with inflation, we understand that there is a lot of inflation that happened in the transport sector. But it’s not really the inflation that can make South Africa to have impact in the general inflation, which will likely see inflation out of the target bracket.”

The energy department will announce the November fuel price adjustment at the end of next week.

Source : SABC News