Fuel prices rise in January despite wholesale price drop
Despite hefty falls in diesel and unleaded wholesale prices in January, the UK’s four largest supermarkets increased fuel prices every day until a last-gasp cut on 29 January.
The drop in wholesale prices, which saw unleaded fall 4p and diesel 7.5p, should have been good news for UK drivers, but prices at supermarkets increased £1.51p and £1.30p respectively.
Across all retailers, unleaded rose 0.92p to an average price to £1.27, whilst diesel rose 0.96p to £1.32, according to data from the RAC.
In average, retailers made a 9p margin per litre of petrol over the course of the month, 4p higher than they have averaged since 2013.
The increase marked the second consecutive month of rising prices, and mean that it costs 50p more to fill up a 55-litre family car than it did in December.
RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: “Based on steadily falling wholesale prices January should have been a good month for drivers at the pumps, but instead they ended up being paying well over the odds at the pumps.
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“In fact, January was a perfect example of ‘rocket and feather’ pricing where prices go up far faster than they come down.
“Our biggest retailers – the supermarkets – blatantly resisted passing on the savings they were making to drivers until the RAC publicly called on them to do so on 27 January when RAC Fuel Watch data showed there was scope for a large cut. Two days later a headline-grabbing 3p a litre cut was announced.
“This was clearly good news, but it’s hard to congratulate retailers on doing something they should have done at least a week before.
“Even since the cut pump prices are still out of kilter with what’s been happening on the wholesale market. As things stand now – despite the cuts – petrol is still 5p too expensive and diesel over 7p too dear.”
A Tesco spokesperson said: “Against a challenging market we continue to offer a competitive price for customers, and just last week we cut the price of fuel in our petrol stations.”