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Big four grocers announce diesel and petrol price cuts

Fuel prices are being cut at more than a thousand filling stations across the UK run by Britain's biggest supermarkets.

An announcement by Asda - which said it was capping the cost of petrol at 110.7p per litre and diesel at 112.7p at its 294 stations from Tuesday - was followed by a round of cuts by its rivals.

Tesco (Xetra: 852647 - news) , Britain's biggest supermarket, said it was cutting petrol and diesel prices by up to 3p per litre at all of its 500 filling stations on Monday afternoon.

Morrisons followed suit by saying it was cutting each fuel by up to 3p at its 333 forecourts. Sainsbury (Amsterdam: SJ6.AS - news) 's said its prices at 303 sites would see similar cuts.

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It comes after official figures showed average fuel prices had reached their highest level since July last year, with motorists charged 116.6p for petrol 119p for diesel.

The cost of filling up vehicles has risen in recent months as the global oil price began to recover from a major slump and the post-referendum collapse in the pound pushed up import costs.

Morrisons said the strengthening of the pound more recently allowed it to pass on savings.

Earlier this month, the RAC (Taiwan OTC: 2237.TWO - news) said the pace of fuel price rises had reached its fastest in more than three years.

The motoring organisation welcomed the latest price cut but said it had come too late as the wholesale price of fuel has been falling, together with oil prices, in recent weeks.

RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said retailers should have reduced their prices already.

He added: "It's hard not to see it as them taking advantage of the current climate, which has led people to think that higher fuel prices are an inevitability simply because of the weaker pound and talk of the rising cost of goods.

"In fact there is still scope to reduce pump prices further."

Asda's senior director for petrol, Andy Peake, said: "Asda is once again leading the way in reducing the price at the pumps to help the millions of motorists across the UK."

Tesco's fuel director, Peter Cattell, said it was helping out customers "with the busy festive season just around the corner".