Average petrol price at 140p again

The average price of petrol at the pumps has reached the 140p-a-litre mark again, the AA has said.

Diesel is now on average 146.38p a litre, but both diesel and petrol prices are short of their all-time highs reached last year.

The good news for motorists is that supermarkets have cut the price of fuel this week and there have been reports that Chancellor George Osborne will announce in next week's Budget that he is scrapping autumn's planned fuel duty rise.

However, since the beginning of this year petrol has risen around 8p a litre and diesel has gone up 6.5p.

Regionally, the cheapest petrol is in northern England and in Yorkshire and Humberside, with both areas averaging 139.3p a litre.

Northern Ireland is the most expensive at 141.1p - substantially more expensive than the next dearest, in south-east England, at 140.5p.

At 147.1p a litre, the South East is also the most expensive for diesel, significantly ahead of its nearest rival, Northern Ireland, where the average is 146.7p. Yorkshire and Humberside is the cheapest for diesel at 145.7p.

AA president Edmund King said: "The financial chaos and uncertainty created by an unprecedented three rounds of wholesale price surges and collapses in one year would become more explicable with a published track - illustrating why the cost of a tank of petrol has temporarily soared and fallen £5 on three occasions in 12 months.