SYDNEY, June 12 (Xinhua) -- A report from Australia's competition and consumer watchdog has shown that retail petrol prices across the country's five largest cities were lower in the March quarter but daily average prices hit a new nominal high in April.
In its latest petrol monitoring report released on Wednesday, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) found a decrease in average retail prices across Australia's five largest cities in the March quarter.
According to the ACCC, the Q1 average retail petrol prices across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth were 193.2 cents per liter (cpl), down by 1.7 cpl from the December quarter last year.
Quarterly average petrol prices dropped the most in Perth by 4.1 cpl, while the average Brisbane prices jumped by 1.4 cpl and the capital of Queensland also registered the highest average prices of 200.0 cpl among the five largest cities.
Besides, on April 30, the seven-day rolling average retail petrol prices reached a record high in nominal terms of 215.2 cpl.
"Daily average retail petrol prices increased across the five major cities in April following increases in international refined petrol prices and as petrol price cycles in several cities moved towards the highest point of the cycles," said ACCC Commissioner Anna Brakey.
Though average retail petrol prices in April were below the highest price levels seen in the past in inflation-adjusted terms, the effects of recent international factors and geo-political events on benchmark prices continued to influence relatively high Australian retail petrol prices.
"We encourage motorists in the five largest cities to refer to our price charts on the ACCC website to keep up to date with petrol price cycle movements and opportunities they present to fill up at lower prices. Motorists around the country can make use of the many fuel price apps and websites to find lower-priced retailers in their area," the commissioner added. (1 Australian dollar equals about 0.66 U.S. dollars) ■
