Petrol price of £1 a litre comes one step closer as big four supermarkets cut prices
The good news for drivers just keeps on rolling. Britain's so-called "big four" supermarkets have announced a 2p cut to the price of petrol, with Tesco's reduction coming into effect immediately.
The rest, which include Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury's, will cut their prices tomorrow. The reductions bring the prospect of £1 per litre petrol tantalisingly close, with Asda promising motorists a price of no more than 105.7p for a litre of petrol. Asda has slashed its fuel prices 14 times since September.
Today the price of oil dropped to a five-and-a-half-year low of $55 per barrel, with supplies from Iraq and Russia contributing to the world's oil glut.
Simon Williams, a spokesman for the RAC, said the cost of fuel for motorists was at its lowest level for five years and could fall even further:
The cuts are bringing us ever closer to the £1-per-litre average for petrol. Of course, it would also be an extremely welcome move for motorists and businesses alike
The president of the AA, Edmund King, sounded a more cautious note, saying rural communities were not benefiting as much as their counterparts in the cities:
Further drops in the pump price are extremely welcome. However, small rural towns are again being left behind by the price falls in the more competitive areas.
He added that the falling price of oil would not translate into dramatically lower prices like those seen in the US thanks to the UK's high rate of fuel duty:
We would love to see £1 per litre and we may possibly see it in many parts of the UK but it is unlikely that the average price will drop as quickly to the £1 level – partly because 70 per cent of the price is tax.