Major supermarkets launch petrol price war, but which is cheapest?

Sainsbury’s and Tesco said that they will drop prices by up to five pence per litre.

16:42 30 September 2014

Three major UK supermarkets have launched a fuel price war cutting the prices of petrol and diesel starting on Tuesday.

While both Sainsbury’s and Tesco announced that they will drop of up to five pence per litre, Asda seemed more apprehensive to the idea and said it would reduce petrol by up to one pence and diesel by two.

RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said the price of both petrol and diesel had "been low for around three months" but added latest price cuts "will take us to a new low, the likes of which we haven't seen since late 2010, early 2011 when the price of petrol and diesel unfortunately jumped by 10 pence a litre in just a few months".

The motoring organisation AA welcomed the move. Its spokesman said that price cuts are "particularly welcome as families get back to school runs and into their autumn routines".

Meanwhile, the Office for National Statistics said that the reduced rate is partly because the UK’s inflation rate grew more slowly than expected earlier this year.