Price changes for Thursday, April 21, 2016

Hi to all,

Here's what I have for this week's price changes. With winter blending over until the fall, the numbers should be more accurate for heating and diesel numbers.

*Heating and stove oils show an increase of 1.4 cents a litre.

*Diesel fuel shows an increase of 1.7 cents a litre, and...

*Gasoline shows no change.

Market highlights

Canadian dollar up

*The Canadian dollar continued to rise against the US dollar this past week, increasing by an average two cents against the Greenback. While US spot prices increased for gasoline this past week, the rise in the dollar absorbed any increase to Newfoundland and Labrador consumers.

Budget reaction

*The budget will prove to be a very painful one this year with increases to energy consumers, especially for those who use the main transportation fuels of diesel and gasoline.

         Both fuels will increase June 2nd by close on twenty cents a litre by the time taxes are accounted for on top of the proposed 16.5 cent a litre increase. Total provincial take in road taxes alone will amount to 33 cents a litre, the highest in Canada. The rumours I heard of a possible five cent a litre increase in the works makes the actual that occurred that much harder, and it's really obvious that consumers could see the return of fuel surcharges to anything being moved by ground transportation.

         Food prices could again be on the upswing in June month with additional fuel surcharges on freight and tourism efforts geared toward drive-in tourists may have been knee-capped with a broken promise from the markets of the potential for lower summer fuel prices.

        This increase makes it harder for everyone, including those who are in business and needs to be rejected outright!

Doha meeting failure

*Meetings in Doha, Qatar aimed at the world's major producers limiting production were a failure this past Sunday as agreement on reaching production limitations failed to meet with any concrete actions by both OPEC and non-OPEC producers. People are saying that they "need more time" to achieve the objectives of any world cut to production and they may try again for agreement in June at the next regular meeting of OPEC.

             I'll keep a close eye on that...

That's it for this week.

Be sure to let your voices be heard over the budget. Call and contact your MHA and be sure to let them know your simply not going to take this one lying down.

Any questions, feel free to drop me a note, and don't forget to share this note!

Regards,

George Murphy

Twitter @GeorgeMurphyOil