'Catastrophic' fuel price increases confirmed for November

The department made the announcement late on Monday evening, about half an hour after voting stations closed for the local government elections.

The new prices are set to come into effect at midnight on Tuesday.

In a statement, the department said petrol will increase by R1.21 per litre, while all grades of diesel will increase by R1.48 per litre.

Illuminating paraffin will increase by R1.45 per litre.

It said the latest increases are a result of a sharp increase in the price of crude oil.

“The brent crude oil reached the highest level since October 2018. The key driver is the higher global demand recovery amid a weaker supply response from non-OPEC and other oil producers. The situation was exacerbated by the impact of the current gas challenges experienced by European countries that are having on the prices of energy commodities,” it said.

The department added that international petroleum product prices also increased.

“The movement in international refined petroleum product prices followed the increasing trend in crude oil prices. This led to higher contributions to the basic fuel price of petrol by 102.37 c/l, diesel by 129.69 c/l and illuminating paraffin by129.05 c/l, respectively.3. Rand/US Dollar exchange rate. The rand depreciated, on average, against the US Dollar (from 14.56 to 14.72 rand per USD) during the period under review when compared to the previous one.

This led to higher contributions to the basic fuel prices of petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin by over 15.00 cents per litre.”