Petrol and diesel clearances up in March as prices fall

Clearances of petrol, diesel and kerosene in March were up while sales of marked gas oil, mostly used for off-road purposes such as agriculture and heating of larger buildings, declined, the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) indicate.

At 313 million litres, autodiesel clearances - the amount of duty paid on fuel removed from bonded warehouses - were up 1 per cent in the month compared with the same month in 2022 to a record volume for the month of March since the data was first compiled in 2000.

Petrol clearances, meanwhile, were up 6 per cent from March 2022 but were 5 per cent lower than in March 2019 while excise clearances for kerosene in March 2023 were 14 per cent higher year-on-year.

The increase in clearances, used as a proxy indicator for sales, coincided with a marked decline in the price of auto fuels over the 12 months to the end of March. The CSO’s consumer price index for the month indicated that petrol prices retreated by 15.6 per cent over the year while diesel prices fell by 15.5 per cent following sharp increases in prices at the pump in the year to March 2022 as global demand recovered following the pandemic.

ECB says consumer inflation expectations declined in April, reinforcing rate cut

---

ECB rate cut next week will not be ‘victory declaration’ on inflation, Lane says

---

Temu: What is it, how do I pronounce it, and why is it so cheap?

---

Here’s how the cost of your ‘expensive’ cup of coffee breaks down

---

Lower clearances volumes at times last year suggested that consumers had cut back on spending due to elevated prices.

The CSO said that clearances of kerosene, which is mostly used as home heating oil, also increased 14 per cent in the year to the end of March. This also coincided with a sharp 29 per cent decrease in the price of the fuel over the 12 month period.

The Government announced earlier this year that it will phase out the reduced rate of excise duty on petrol and diesel from June after introducing the cut to alleviate the burden on motorists of the sharp rise in forecourt prices that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.