Oil prices – Motorists face threat of further hikes

Just as the annual inflation rate dipped under the eurozone average for the first time in five years, it was ambushed by a hike in petrol and diesel prices, which will have a seriously adverse effect on the economy.

The first place the impact of the new pricing regime will be felt is at the forecourt, where petrol is about to hit the €1 per litre mark very soon.

That will inevitably happen after the country's largest independent oil company, Maxol, with undue alacrity, raised its petrol and diesel prices by 3.25 cent per litre. While motorists may not be too interested in the mechanisms of international oil price fixing consequent on fears of lower supplies, the reality will quickly become all too evident at the pumps.