Experts say fuel prices will remain affordable

WHILE the heady days of a dollar per litre may be behind us, experts have tipped fuel prices to remain relatively affordable, as the regular fuel cycle returns.

WHILE the heady days of a dollar per litre may be behind us, experts have tipped fuel prices to remain relatively affordable, as the regular fuel cycle returns.

Despite a jump of about 10c per litre in fuel prices since last week, unleaded on the Coast was still sitting around 112.9c a litre, according to fuel price watchdog MotorMouth's website yesterday.

There's traditionally about a three-week lag between fuel prices in Singapore and local prices, and MotorMouth spokesman Alan Cadd said we were now returning to a more traditional cycle, which he believed would fluctuate between about 105c per litre and 120c a litre. "The continuing run with lower prices was going to come to an end at some stage and that was probably indicated around January 13 when crude and finished product prices in Singapore stopped going down," Mr Cadd said.

Mr Cadd said there had been a large amount of "cheap product" (discounted fuel) circulating the market in past months, equating to a massive drop in petrol prices.

Despite the recent rise, Mr Cadd did not expect prices to reach the high figures of about September last year when they hovered around or above the 150c a litre mark. "This is just a return to the regular, two-weekly cycle that we used to have," Mr Cadd said.

Mr Cadd said the end result was that prices remained about 40c per litre lower than they were in 2014, which was good news for all Coast motorists.

PRICE POINT (MotorMouth Unleaded figures as of yesterday afternoon):

•  United Coolum Beach: 112.7
•  Caltex/Woolworths Nambour: 112.9
•  Puma Glasshouse: 112.9
•  Matilda Nambour: 112.9
•  BP Connect Palms Corner: 112.9
•  7 Eleven Nambour: 112.9