Fuel prices cut at Asda as wholesale costs fall

The supermarket giant announced it will reduce the price of diesel by up to 3p per litre and petrol by up to 1p per litre from Thursday.

That means drivers will pay no more than £1.29 per litre for diesel and £1.27 per litre for petrol at all its filling stations.

Asda said the decision is due to a recent drop in wholesale costs, with the price of oil falling by around 9% last month.

Four consecutive months of average fuel price increases in the UK mean that since February the cost of filling a typical 55-litre family car has increased by £6 for petrol models and £3.80 for diesel models.

AA fuel price spokesman Luke Bosdet said drivers have been "thrown around on a year-long pump price rollercoaster" with prices fluctuating by up to 10p per litre.

He went on: "Families with cars react badly to price shocks, but worse still when falling wholesale prices aren't reflected at the pump.

"In the past fortnight, wholesale petrol and diesel prices have dropped but average UK pump prices have continued to rise."

RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: "Diesel drivers especially will be relieved to see pump prices finally going down instead of up.

"While this is obviously welcome it's important to realise that the drop in wholesale costs has been dramatic, meriting far bigger price reductions for both petrol and diesel.

"For this reason we view this round of cuts very much as a good start. We should really see more in the next week or so.

"We would very much like to see retailers reflect wholesale price reductions more closely. This is particularly the case with diesel, which has been a similar price to petrol on the wholesale market for some time, yet is still 5p a litre more expensive on average on the forecourt."