Asda and Tesco cut costs to fuel supermarket petrol price war

Saturday, 05 November 2011 11:07

Another supermarket petrol price war is set to cut the cost of petrol by up to two pence a litre for millions of hard-pressed motorists due to a fall in the cost of wholesale fuel prices.
Wholesale fuel prices have dropped by up to four pence a litre affected by the fall in value of the euro over the summer.

Asda has now cut its prices by two pence a litre in all of its 192 petrol stations, down to 128.7p for a litre of petrol and 136.7p for a litre of diesel. This brings the cost of a litre of unleaded fuel down to the lowest level since February.

Asda operates an income tracker index, which it claims shows that transport costs are the biggest factor putting pressure on household finances making families £15 a week worse off than this time last year.

Tesco has also announced that it will reduce fuel prices by up to 2p a litre from Friday evening and will also introduce further promotions that it claims will allow customers to save a further 15p a litre on fuel.

Sainsbury’s will also cut the cost of fuel in many stores by 2p a litre from Saturday November 5th.

Luke Bosdet of the AA said: "Throughout the whole of the summer petrol prices have followed the fortunes of the euro: when the euro improved, petrol prices increased. Now things are coming to a head with the euro and we have the end of the Libyan crisis and the pound strengthening. That is worth about 3p-4p at the pump."

Mr Bodset added that Asda remains determined to establish and keep its reputation as the cheapest place to buy fuel and that motorists who live close to an Asda store generally benefit from cheaper prices, though Morrisons has on occasions beaten the Asda price for fuel.

It remains to be seen how long and deep the cuts will last as the previous "supermarket petrol price war" did not last long and dekivered limited benefits to motorists.

Use the Myfinances.co.uk comparison tables to keep your bills low this winter.
 

• Tags:
• asda
,
• cost of living
,
• fuel
,
• household bills
,
• news
,
• petrol
,
• petrol prices
,
• sainsbury s
,
• tesco