Petrol pump sales slump

HIGH prices and heavy snow helped push down petrol pump sales in the last part of 2009, figures showed today.

Supermarket sales dipped 14.6 per cent in the last three months of 2009, compared with the October-December 2008 figure, according to statistics from the AA.

Measured in tonnage, overall petrol sales in October-December 2009 dipped 9.9 per cent compared with the year before.

During the October-December 2009 period, the average price of petrol rose from 105.3p a litre to 107.95p. In the same period in 2008, prices plunged from 110.0p a litre to just 87.64p.

Petrol sales for the whole of 2009 were 4.3 per cent down on the 2008 total, with diesel sales falling 1.8 per cent.