Petrol, diesel prices hiked again starting Jan 1; two charts explain how prices gyrated in last two years

The government has been aggressively hiking domestic fuel prices of petrol and diesel over the past one year in response to the movement in international crude oil prices. Starting in the new year, the government on 1 January hiked the price of petrol by Rs 1.64 to Rs 76.91 a litre and diesel by Rs 1.21 to Rs 63.61 per litre. The fresh rise in domestic fuel prices is being attributed to fluctuation in global crude prices of late and currency volatility between rupee and dollar rates. [caption id=“attachment_2865974” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] In the last month of December, the government twice hiked the prices of petrol, but raised the diesel price once while announcing a nominal cut on 1 December. Following a meeting between OPEC members on 30 November to cut output, global brent crude prices touched $50 a barrel and maintained its upward bias in the last month of 2016 before ending firm at $56.82 a barrel on 30 December. Beween september and October, the government hiked petrol prices five times, with the steep hike of Rs 3.36 to Rs 68.40 a litre coming on 1 September, 2016. The sharpest hike in 2016 came on 1 June when the government increased petrol price by Rs 4.06 to Rs 70.18 per litre. However, with global crude prices staying lacklustre in July and August, petrol prices were cut four times in these two months with the sharp cut of Rs 2.21 to Rs 67.11 a litre comin on 16 July. However, the steepest cut in petrol price last year came on 1 March when the Centre slashed prices by Rs 2.98 to Rs 62.75 a litre. The two charts below will show how the prices of petrol and diesel moved in the last two years. Petrol price chart Diesel price chart With data input from Kishor Kadam