Brown urges retailers to cut petrol price

Source: Reuters

Date :16/10/2008 18:43:31

Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged retailers Thursday to cut petrol prices to reflect the drop in the oil price.

Brown also said that, despite the halving of the oil price from a high of $147 a barrel in July to under $74 for U.S. crude Thursday, oil prices were "still too high."

Brown said he would like to see other retailers follow the lead of two supermarket chains which have cut the petrol price to just below one pound a litre, from a peak of 1.18 pounds.

"The public know that when oil prices go up, it's reflected very quickly in the petrol pump price. What they want to know is that when oil prices come down that is also reflected in the pump price," he told a news conference after a European Union summit.

"I want to see the competition between supermarkets and oil companies reflected in lower prices at the pumps," he said.

"Over these next few days we'll be monitoring what's happening but I expect other companies to follow the lead that has been taken by two supermarkets in the last days," he said.

High energy prices have fuelled inflation which hit a 16-year high of 5.2 percent in September. Many economists believe British inflation has now peaked.

BP and supermarket chains Asda, owned by Wal-Mart Stores, and WM Morrison have cut their petrol price to 99.9 pence a litre, according to press reports.

Voters' anger over high energy and food prices has cost Brown's government support, leaving it lagging the opposition Conservatives in the opinion polls.

Brown also said that there was too much variation in petrol prices across Britain.

"In some areas, the petrol price is still as high as 1.20 pounds per litre, that must change," he said.

(Reporting by Adrian Croft; Editing by William Hardy)

BRUSSELS (Reuters)