A booklet to assist consumers to understand petrol pricing in Australia was issued today by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
"Petrol prices are of great concern to many Australians and particularly in recent times when prices have been at historically high levels", ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel, said."The booklet is intended to provide an understanding of petrol prices by presenting answers to some frequently asked questions on this issue.
"There is a lot of mis-information in the community about petrol prices. This booklet explains issues such as how petrol prices are determined in Australia and why petrol prices vary between locations".
Movements in petrol prices in Australia are largely influenced by movements in international refined petrol prices and the Australian/US dollar exchange rate.
"One example of mis-information is that it is often claimed that petrol prices increase quickly when international refined petrol prices increase but do not decrease as fast when these prices fall.Analysis undertaken by the ACCC indicates that this is generally not the case".
The chart below shows average monthly retail prices for the five largest metropolitan cities (ie Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth) and average monthly Singapore Mogas 95 Unleaded prices (which is the benchmark international refined petrol price for Australia) in Australian cents per litre for the period July 2004 to June 2005.It shows clearly that average Australian petrol prices tend to move in line with movements in international product prices and the exchange rate.
The booklet also provides information for consumers about petrol price cycles in the largest metropolitan cities and how they can take advantage of them to buy petrol at lower prices.
"As most consumers know, petrol prices in the larger metropolitan cities often move in cycles. The ACCC website provides a considerable amount of information for consumers about price cycles in the largest metropolitan cities, such as the days of the week on which prices tend to peak and trough and the average length of price cycles.Motorists can use this information to buy petrol at the lower point of the price cycle".
A copy of the booklet is available on the ACCC's website, from ACCC offices throughout Australia and from the ACCC Infocentre.
