Ireland's fuel bill in 2017A modest recovery from the 2016 lows.

2017 ended with petrol at €1.399 and diesel at €1.299, after averaging €1.364 and €1.243 respectively over the year. By the final week petrol stood 5.0 cent higher than in the first. Petrol's annual mean ended +8.1 cent on 2016, diesel's +9.6 cent.

The petrol high of €1.399 came on 6 Feb; the low of €1.299 on 31 Jul. Diesel's extremes were €1.179 and €1.299. Averaged across the year, diesel worked out 12.0 cent a litre cheaper than petrol. The fiscal part of the average petrol litre in 2017 was 63.3%, worth about 86.3 cent. Off-road diesel averaged €0.629 in the year, its weekly readings spanning €0.578 to €0.681.

The monthly pattern put December at the top, with petrol averaging €1.396, and August at the bottom with €1.319.

Week on week, petrol rose 16 times, fell 18 times and held 16 times.

Against an EU petrol average of €1.351 for 2017, the Irish figure was 1.3 cent higher.

Mineral Oil Tax on petrol held at €587.71 per 1,000 litres throughout 2017, and on diesel at €479.02; every movement in the pump price that year came from the fuel or the margin.

Month by month, the CSO's survey took petrol from €1.366 (January) to €1.378 (December).

Read on to 2018 at the pumps, or step back to the 2016 record.

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