According to the Australian Institute of Petroleum, the national average Australian price of unleaded petrol rose by 0.2 cents a litre to 151.9 c/l in the week to September 29. The metropolitan price rose by 0.5 c/l to 149.7 c/l, while the regional average price fell by 0.5 c/l to 156.3 c/l.
The average diesel price was down by 0.4 cents a litre to 160.0 cents. Average unleaded petrol prices across states/territories over the past week were: Sydney (up 0.3 cents to 148.4 c/l), Melbourne (up 4.6 cents to 150.8 c/l), Brisbane (up 3.5 cents to 152.1 c/l), Adelaide (down 13.5 cents to 140.6 c/l), Perth (down 2.2 cents to 148.7 c/l), Darwin (up 0.2c to 168.0 c/l), Canberra (down 0.7 cents to 157.2 c/l) and Hobart (down 0.2 cents to 163.3 c/l).
Today, the national average wholesale (terminal gate) unleaded petrol price stands at 138.3 c/l, down 0.3 cents a litre over the past seven days and near 3½ month lows. Motorists need to be conscious about the vagaries of discounting cycles, but broadly the underlying Australian petrol price looks like easing to the $1.45-1.50 a litre range over the next 1-2 weeks.
With more short term weakness on the US lunacy and AUD strength on the disgraced RBA’s housing bubble, we can expect some more petrol price relief in the near term.
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.
