The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has expressed concern about the behaviour of petrol prices in the pre-Easter period, ACCC Chairman, Professor Allan Fels, said today.
"There are three factors which explain the price rises around Australia:
the normal weekly jump
a rise in world prices of about 1 to 2c a litre
an additional amount which oil companies appear to have added to prices this Easter.
"The fact that an additional amount has been added is confirmed by a study of the gap between retail prices in capital cities and international prices, as measured by the 'import parity indicator' which is the best, most relevant measure of international prices for Australia.
"The ACCC has measured the average margin between the peak price at the top of the weekly price cycle and international prices, and found that the margin applying at Easter is much greater than the margin which has applied for the previous peaks since the beginning of the year.
"For example in Melbourne on Thursday at 11 a.m. the average retail price of petrol was 93.3c a litre, which is 3.18c per litre higher than the international price indicator.
"However, the average margin for the past nine jumps this year was 2.07c a litre. In other words, the difference is 1.11c per litre.
"A table showing these figures is provided for all capital cities below. Note that in some capital cities such as Sydney the current average price of petrol is 91.4c a litre on Thursday at 11 a.m.. However the ACCC measure of the gap between the international price and the Sydney price used the price at the peak of the latest price rise, that is, it used the figure from yesterday, which was 92.5c per litre.
"The difference in Sydney is 1.42c per litre, in Melbourne 1.11c per litre, Brisbane 0.34c per litre, Perth 1.25c per litre, and Adelaide 0.68c per litre. It should be noted that Adelaide has not experienced a jump this week".
Table showing comparitive petrol prices in Australian capital cities at Easter
