Canberra remains the second most expensive capital city in the country to buy fuel at 15 cents more than the national average, and is more expensive than most regional centres around the ACT.
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The price at the pump in Canberra fell just 0.1 cents to 153.9 cents per litre over the past week, cheaper only than Darwin, where fuel costs more than 160 cents.
The average petrol price nationally was at a nine-month low of 137.8 cents per litre, while motorists in Sydney were able to fill up on the second-cheapest petrol in the nation over the past week, at just 128.7 cents, marginally higher than Adelaide where the price at the pump fell 8.7 cents to just 128.1 cents per litre.
According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Canberra prices are also higher than other centres around the region.
The price in the ACT was about 7 cents higher than in Queanbeyan, 4 cents higher than Goulburn, 1 cent higher than Wagga Wagga and about the same as the pump price in Yass.
The ACCC said prices vary based on a number of characteristics, including the number of service stations, volume of fuel sold, and convenience store sales attached to petrol sales, and Canberra wasn’t always the most expensive city in the region.
“Since the beginning of the year Canberra prices at times have been lower than prices in Goulburn, Queanbeyan, Wagga and Yass,” a statement from the ACCC said.
According to CommSec Research, fuel prices have likely bottomed out around the country for the time being, but prices were not expected to rise sharply in the near future.
“Motorists should continue to embrace the good news with prices unlikely to accelerate in the short term,” the CommSec report said. “Not only is the national average petrol price around 14 cents a litre cheaper than a year ago, it is also 6 cents a litre cheaper than two years ago.”
