Irish petrol and diesel in 2008Diesel overtakes petrol in the August spike.

Taken week by week, 2008 put the average litre of petrol at €1.237 and the average litre of diesel at €1.288. Over the twelve months petrol drifted 3.1 cent lower, first reading to last. Year on year, measured against the 2007 averages, petrol came in +11.6 cent and diesel +20.5 cent.

At its cheapest, on 24 Nov, petrol cost €1.156; at its dearest, on 4 Aug, €1.330, a range of 17.4 cent within twelve months. Averaged across the year, diesel worked out 5.2 cent a litre dearer than petrol. Over the year the duties and VAT made up 61.7% of what a motorist paid for petrol, around 76.3 cent a litre. Off-road diesel averaged €0.896 in the year, its weekly readings spanning €0.628 to €1.072.

Of the twelve months, August carried the highest petrol average (€1.329) and December the lowest (€1.156).

Week on week, petrol rose 6 times, fell 5 times and held 38 times.

The EU average for petrol that year was €1.326, which left Ireland 8.9 cent lower on the European mean.

The Finance (No. 2) Act 2008 reset the mineral oil rates from 1 November 2008, putting petrol at 508.79 euro per 1,000 litres and diesel at 368.05, according to Revenue's table of historical rates.

Either side of this page stand fuel prices in 2007 and what a litre cost in 2009.

The yearly averages are compared on the long-run price record.