August petrol price rise was one of biggest ever, says RAC Fuel Watch

The pump price of petrol last month saw one of the biggest increases in the past 23 years, figures from RAC Fuel Watch show.

The organisation found the average price of a litre of unleaded was 152.25p at the end of August, up from 145.57p at the beginning of the month. Diesel went up from 146.36ppl to 154.37ppl.

For petrol, the monthly rise of 6.68ppl exceeded only by March (11.61ppl), May (11.15ppl) and June 2022 (16.59ppl) after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and October 2021 (7.43ppl).

Diesel’s increase was also surpassed only by March (22.06ppl), June (15.62ppl) and October (10.14ppl) last year, as well as by October 2021.

Simon Williams, fuel spokesman at RAC, said: “August was a big shock to drivers as they had grown used to seeing far lower prices than last summer’s record highs.

“Seeing £4 or more go on to the cost of a tank in the space of just a few weeks from a pump price rise of 6-7p a litre is galling, particularly for those who drive lots of miles or run and older, less fuel-efficient car.

“While the increase is clearly bad news for drivers, it could have been far worse had the biggest retailers not let their inflated margins from earlier in the year return to more normal levels as wholesale fuel costs went up.”

Williams said wholesale costs for both petrol and diesel started to rise in late July on the back of oil hitting $85, but retailers have clearly been influenced by the Competition and Markets Authority’s investigation as margins have fallen to become closer to longer-term averages.

He added: “All we can hope is that this move by many big retailers back to fairer forecourt pricing remains when wholesale costs go down again. Only time will tell.”

Regional pump prices