Petrol to fall below £1 a litre? Brent crude oil price falls to its lowest in more than five years
Brent crude oil dipped as low as $55.48 a barrel this morning, its lowest in five and a half years.
The price fall came off the back of weak manufacturing data from China and Europe, as well as a stronger dollar.
The drop comes after oil prices lost 49 per cent during 2014, its second-biggest fall since the 1980s. Barring a miracle, oil prices are likely to end the week having fallen – their sixth weekly drop in a row.
Although commodities traders are less than pleased (commodities were the worst-performing asset class last year) by the ever-diminishing price of oil, consumers have benefitted from the resulting fall in petrol prices.
In fact, analysts have hinted that petrol prices could fall below £1 a litre for the first time since May 2009. Analysts at Morgan Stanley have forecast prices could fall as low as $35 a barrel, which would push petrol prices way down.
Simon Williams, a spokesman for the RAC, suggested Brent crude will keep falling.
The prospect of petrol going below £1 a litre in the new year is incredible, particularly when prices at the beginning of 2014 seemed to be heading ever upwards.Current forecasts are for average petrol prices to fall to below 110p a litre in the next fortnight and diesel to drop to under 116p. At these average prices across the country the cheapest retailers will almost certainly be selling petrol for around 105p a litre, or even lower.