Petrol below £1 a litre for the first time this year

The average price of a litre of petrol dropped below £1 a litre for the first time in a year today, driven by "cut-throat" supermarket competition according to the AA.

The cost of petrol fell to 98.63p per litre with diesel falling to 111.00p. It takes the price of petrol back to where it was around 30 October last year.

Compared with the record high of 119.7p per litre in mid July, the fall has put nearly £45 a month back into the budget of a family with two petrol cars, figures from the motoring organisation found.

AA president Edmund King said more than two thirds of drivers now fill up at supermarkets.

"This partly explains why the UK petrol price has fallen four times more quickly in the past fortnight than between mid-July and early October when only two of the major supermarkets chased prices down," he said.

"Asda, and to some extent Morrisons, trail-blazed lower prices in the summer, but it the full participation of the others to produce the record falls."