According to the Australian Institute of Petroleum, the national average Australian price of unleaded petrol fell by 3.0 cents a litre to 148.0 c/l in the week to October 27. This was in line with our forecast last week: “CommSec believes that pump prices should fall 2-3 cents over the next 7-10 days.”
The metropolitan price fell by 4.0 c/l to 145.0 c/l, while the regional average price fell by 0.9 c/l to 154.0 c/l. The average diesel price was down by 0.2 cents a litre to 159.2 cents.
Average unleaded petrol prices across states and territories over the past week were: Sydney (down 5.3 cents to 143.4 c/l), Melbourne (down 6.2 cents to 140.7 c/l), Brisbane (down 6.5 cents to 146.7 c/l), Adelaide (up 4.5 cents to 149.6 c/l), Perth (down 0.5 cents to 145.9 c/l), Darwin (unchanged at 168.3 c/l), Canberra (down 0.1c at 156.4 c/l) and Hobart (down 1.0 cents to 162.1 c/l).
Today, the national average wholesale (terminal gate) unleaded petrol price stands at 135.3 c/l, the lowest level in around five months (May 29) and down 2 cents a litre over the week.
The gap between the wholesale price and pump price last week was 11.3 cents (8.3 per cent), down from a 15-month high of 13.9 cents (10.1 per cent). But the gross retail margin is still well above the 5-year average of 8.4 cents or 6.7 per cent.
Last week the key Singapore unleaded petrol price fell by US$2.20 (1.9 per cent) to US$114.40 a barrel. And in Australian dollar terms the Singapore gasoline price fell by $2.26 (1.9 per cent) last week to a 5-month low of $116.69 a barrel or 73.4 cents a litre.
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific's leading geo-politics and economics portal.
He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.
