A FUEL price drop is expected next week.
Motorists and logistics companies are to have some relief as the petrol price is expected to drop by an estimated 60c and the drop in the price of diesel is to be between 6c and 10c a litre.
Neil Roets, Debt Rescue chief executive, said had finance minister Pravin Gord- han not increased the fuel levy, the fuel price decrease could have been as high as 90c a litre.
Roets said apart from the fuel price decrease, the short- to medium-term outlook for consumers looked increasingly gloomy with the depreciation of the rand playing a major role in the overall picture.
“Every commodity we import from abroad has to be paid for in US dollars and that includes crude oil. As things stand at the moment there is a strong likelihood that the exchange rate may weaken further, which is going to offset the decreasing price of crude oil,” he said.
“The problem is that the severe drought in especially maize producing areas is going to lead to substantial increases in the price of all foodstuffs including staples like maize and wheat which will have to be imported at almost twice the local price.”