According to the Australian Institute of Petroleum, the national average Australian price of unleaded petrol fell by 1.2 cents a litre to 150.7 c/l in the week to October 6. The metropolitan price fell by 1.3 c/l to 148.4 c/l, while the regional average price fell by 0.9 c/l to 155.4 c/l. The average diesel price was down by 0.3 cents a litre to 159.7 cents.
Average unleaded petrol prices across states/territories over the past week were: Sydney (up 1.1 cents to 149.5 c/l), Melbourne (down 4.5 cents to 146.3 c/l), Brisbane (down 3.6 cents to 148.5 c/l), Adelaide (up 6.1 cents to 146.7 c/l), Perth (down 1.2 cents to 147.5 c/l), Darwin (up 0.3c to 168.3 c/l), Canberra (down 0.6 cents to 156.6 c/l) and Hobart (down 0.2 cents to 163.1 c/l).
Today, the national average wholesale (terminal gate) unleaded petrol price stands at 137.4 c/l, down 1.0 cents a litre over the past seven days and at 3½ month lows. Motorists need to be conscious about the vagaries of discounting cycles, but the underlying Australian petrol price will fall 3-5 cents further into the $1.45-1.50 a litre range over the next 1-2 weeks.
Last week the key Singapore unleaded petrol price fell by US$1.60 (1.4 per cent) to US$114.30 a barrel (the price had hit a 5-month low of US$112.60 on Wednesday). And in Australian dollar terms the Singapore gasoline price fell by $2.80 cents (2.3 per cent) last week to an 18-week low of $121.04 a barrel or 76.1 cents a litre.
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
