Motorists have not been protected from price increases by Rishi Sunak's fuel duty cut, says the RAC, which has instead called for a temporary reduction to VAT.
The cost of filling a family car with petrol was a third higher in March than it was a year ago, while a diesel car cost 40% more - and the chancellor's 5p fuel duty cut has done little to help.
That is the verdict from RAC's Fuel Watch, which found that the average litre of unleaded petrol reached 167.3p on 22 March - a record high. A record was also set by the 11.62p per litre increase seen in unleaded petrol during the month - the largest increase recorded by the RAC in a single month since monitoring began in 2000.Diesel car drivers faced even bigger increases - the average price rocketed by 22.06p per litre, peaking at 179.9p on 23 March.That was an increase three times the size of that seen in May 2008, previously the worst month, when the cost increased by 8.43p.
Rising wholesale fuel costs are to blame, made worse by a rise in the cost of oil following the Russian invasion of Ukraine - a barrel cost $112.99 at the beginning of March before hitting a 14-year high of $137.72 on 8 March.
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