The petrol price will once again be hiked at pumps throughout South Africa, this time by 25 cents per litre as from July 5, the department of minerals and energy said on Friday.

The department said that it will increase the petrol price largely because of the rand's weakness during June.

Already the price rises are filtering through to consumer price inflation — 0.4 percent of May's 0.6 percent month-on-month increase in the consumer price index excluding mortgage rate changes (CPIX) was contributed by the petrol price.

At the beginning of May, the department raised the petrol price by 39 cents per litre, followed by a rise of 36 cents per litre on June 7.

And consumers will be particularly hard hit by the latest increase: the rand has traded at its weakest level in some two and a half years, breaking through the 7.00 to the dollar level in the middle of June.

The increase is also likely to place the SA Reserve Bank under more pressure to raise interest rates when they next meet, early in August.

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