Petrol and diesel prices, 2014An autumn slide into December's low.

Petrol averaged €1.530 a litre over the 49 Mondays of 2014, and diesel €1.458. Petrol closed 2014 13.8 cent lower than its opening reading. Set beside 2013, petrol averaged −5.8 cent and diesel −5.6 cent, year on year.

Petrol peaked at €1.573 (15 Sep) and bottomed at €1.399 (8 Dec); between the two lie 17.4 cent a litre. In annual terms, diesel stood 7.2 cent a litre cheaper than petrol. The tax take on petrol averaged 58.4% of the pump price through the year, close to 89.3 cent a litre. For farm and heating users, green diesel came to €0.987 on average, moving between €0.734 and €1.065.

Month by month, the high point for petrol was August (€1.570 on average) and the low point December (€1.419).

Petrol's weekly record shows 5 upward moves, 10 downward ones and 34 weeks without change.

In EU terms, the 2014 petrol average was €1.534 and Ireland's was 0.4 cent lower against it.

2014 was a quiet year for duty: €587.71 per 1,000 litres on petrol and €479.02 on diesel from January to December.

Carbon tax reached coal and peat in two steps, €10 a tonne from 1 May 2013 and €20 from 1 May 2014, according to Revenue; the duty on petrol and diesel did not change.

The CSO's monthly average for petrol ran from €1.527 in January to €1.419 in December.

The archive continues with 2015 at the pumps; the year before is the 2013 record.

The full run of years is on petrol and diesel prices over the years.