The price per litre fell by over 6p per litre in the three months to 17 June – a fall of about 23 per cent – but it is not known at this stage what effect the reduction will have on Jersey’s high inflation rate.The end of June inflation figure is scheduled to be announced on 16 July and senior politicians will be hoping the rate falls from the high end of March figure of 4.9 per cent as compared to the equivalent UK figure of 3.1 per cent.The cost of 900 litres of domestic heating oil dropped from an average price of 26.82p per litre in mid-March to 20.71p per litre in mid-June.
However, prices in the Island continue to be significantly higher than in the UK, where an average litre costs 16.66p per litre.Over the 12-month period from June last year to June 2003, the price in the Island rose by about two per cent but UK prices have fallen by roughly three per cent over the same period.Policy and Resources statistician Dr Duncan Gibaut said that oil prices contribute to two of the 14 groups on which the rate of inflation is calculated.’The increase in heating oil prices from March 2002 to March 2003 was 40 per cent and contributed to an overall increase in the fuel and light group of the index by 13 per cent to the end of March.
In the motoring costs group, the price of petrol contributed to an eight per cent increase over the March to March period,’ he said.However, Dr Gibaut said that the increase in domestic heating oil prices in the period June 2002 to June 2003 was only two per cent and added that ‘this is should have a much smaller effect on the fuel and light group than the price rise at the end of the March to March period’.But asked what the likely effect would be on the inflation figure, he said: ‘It is almost impossible to predict at this stage because so many other variables have to be taken into account when compiling the index.’
