Petrol price drop offers slight relief for South African consumers - say experts

EXPERTS say that a slight decrease in petrol price will create some breathing room for consumers. This follows the Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources Gwede Mantashe announcing on Wednesday a 5 cents per litre decrease on both grades of petrol and 36.90 cents per litre decrease on both grades of diesel.

- YOGASHEN PILLAY

Waldo Krugell, an economics professor at the North-West University (NWU), said that consumers are lucky that the slightly stronger rand-dollar exchange rate and stable crude oil price have absorbed the impact of the increase in the fuel levy that came into effect today. “It is not quite relief, but the fact that the price is not going up adds to the little bit of breathing room in household budgets. Last week's repo rate cut will also help. And it is really important as we saw in yesterday's Q1 GDP numbers that household spending is all that is keeping the economy going.”