THE price of petrol at the pumps is rising again after weeks of falls.
The average cost of a litre of petrol in Scotland is now 132p, with diesel at 137.4p, the AA said.
Average petrol prices across the UK peaked at 142.48p a litre in mid-April and were as low as 130.81p at the beginning of this month, before going up again. But the AA said that had the fall in the north west European wholesale price of petrol been fully passed on to consumers, motorists would have been paying even less for fuel than they were at the beginning of the month.
Now, wholesale prices have gone up again, with market speculation which inflated prices earlier this year re-emerging, the AA said. Across the UK, the average price is 132.18p while a litre of diesel is 137.26p
Petrol is cheapest in Yorkshire and Humberside at 131.6p a litre and most expensive in Northern Ireland at 133.4p.
South East England is dearest for diesel at 137.8p a litre and is cheapest in Yorkshire and Humberside at 136.6p.
AA president Edmund King said: "This week, we have seen UK inflation for June fall very close to the Bank of England's target.
"It makes you wonder how much closer it would have got had the full extent of lower fuel costs been passed on to drivers."
He went on: "It was inevitable pump prices would eventually rise again but, as has been the case so many times in recent years, the questions remain: should it be happening now and what is driving them up?
"Is it the fundamentals of supply and demand or speculation in the oil and wholesale fuel markets? Current evidence seems to suggest the latter."
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