Print PageAn economist says Australian petrol prices appear to be headed to their highest point since May last year.
Figures from the Australian Institute of Petroleum show the national average price of unleaded petrol rose by more than two cents to 146.2 cents a litre last week.
CommSec economist Savanth Sebastian expects that price to approach $1.50 a litre over the next fortnight.
He says the bad news for Australian motorists is the result of good news for the world economy.
"It's the fact that the global economy is healing. Investors believe that there's much more demand for oil," he said.
"Risk appetite has improved and that's really seeing that the oil price is rallying on a global front.
"I guess unfortunately for motorists that does feed through to domestic pump prices."
Mr Sebastian expects the price to keep rising based on high wholesale and global prices.
"On one front it is the fact that there is an improving global economy, domestic conditions are positive and more importantly we're seeing those emerging economies like China starting to see momentum pick up," he said.
"But on the other side of the equation it does mean that households will be faced with higher fuel prices. To some degree the low interest rates may compensate that."
