Australians Need To Get Used To High Petrol Prices, Chief Economist Says

it's going to get pricey


Article heading image for Australians Need To Get Used To High Petrol Prices, Chief Economist Says

It’s time we got used to paying more at the pump, experts say. 

Commsec chief economist, Craig James, says Aussie families are paying about $30 extra every month, compared to six months ago.

“The average household is spending a bit over $250 a month on petrol, that’s up about $30 in the past six months – so certainly $30 extra each and every month does have an impact on family budgets.”

While the increase might impact discretionary spending for families – meals out and takeaways, Mr James says the prices are here to stay.

“We know the whole sale price of petrol across Australia is $1.44  aliter, to that’s got to be added a retail margin of 10-12 cents, so you’re getting up to $1.57 - $1.60 before you add anything else to the equation – so I think that’s what motorists have got to get used to.”

“It’s all gets down to supply and demand - there’s a limited amount of supply on international markets.”

He said the other complication was the falling Australian dollar, which has made imported oil more expensive for Australia.

But while there’s not likely to be any relief in the near future, he did give Australian consumers a little bit of perspective:

“We’ve got the fourth cheapest oil price of 33 OECD nations. So we may be paying more for petrol but they are paying a whole lot more than other parts of the world. Our prices are actually cheap compared with Europe, even Asia and some parts of globe.”

On October 26th almost 80,000 Australians will be striking against the rising petrol prices. Organiser Sabrina Lamont says “we need our government to listen”.

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15 October 2018




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