Barbados Fuel Price Analysis 2016 to 2017

Summary: Based on publicly available data, Barbadians are paying more at the pump in 2017 for gasoline and diesel compared to 2016. For 2017 – so far – Barbadians paid an average of $3.02 BDS per litre for gasoline and $2.25 BDS per litre for diesel. For gasoline, September was the most expensive month at $3.25 per litre, while January was the cheapest at $2.78. For diesel, September was also the most expensive month at $2.45 per litre, while June was the cheapest at $2.13. The largest price change, for gasoline, occurred in July (8.2% increase) when it went from $2.94 to $3.18. July also registered the largest price change for diesel going from $2.13 to $2.37 (11.3% increase). 

During 2016, Barbadians paid an average of $2.80 BDS per litre for gasoline and $1.97 BDS per litre for diesel. For gasoline, July was the most expensive month at $2.93 per litre. For diesel, it was December at $2.12. Largest price change occurred in May, $2.63 to $2.79 (6.1%), and October $1.95 to $2.09 (7.2%), for gasoline and diesel respectively.

The first week of September saw Barbadians paying more at the pump for gasoline and diesel with the former moving from $3.16 BDS per litre to $3.25, and the latter going from $2.35 BDS per litre to $2.46. Curious about the changes in fuel prices over time, and with a little digging, I found 86 articles relating to fuel price changes going as far back as January 2009 all the way up to September 2017. The data came from the online archives of Barbados Today and the Barbados Government Information Service (BGIS) website. Search terms used were “gas” and “diesel.” From there, I reviewed all of the query results (returned articles which contained those keywords) and extracted and compiled the fuel price change data.

 

For this article, I’m going to look at pricing data between 2016 and 2017 starting with the following table below:

Fuel Prices – Jan to Sep 2017

First, an explanation of the columns: PRICE CHANGE NUMBER is my running count of how many price changes I’ve found and documented (86 so far). DAY is when I believe the actual price change took effect. For example, Barbados Today (BT) reported Price Change #1 taking effect on Sunday mid-night September 3rd. But I interpret mid-night Sunday as Monday morning, which would be September 4th. In any case, it doesn’t matter, as I am only interested in the MONTH that the price change occurred. The YEAR column is the year in which it took place. GAS OLD PRICE was the previous price, GAS NEW PRICE is the new price. CHANGE is the change in price (values in parenthesis reflects a price reduction), % CHANGE is the change expressed as a percentage. The same explanations apply to the DIESEL columns.

Here’s a graph of gasoline vs. diesel prices:

Highlights for 2017 (SO FAR):

Barbadians have paid an average of $3.02 BDS per litre for gasoline and $2.25 BDS per litre for diesel.

For gasoline, September has been the most expensive month at $3.25 per litre while January was the cheapest: $2.78.

For diesel, September was also the most expensive month at $2.45 per litre, while June was the cheapest: $2.13.

Largest price change, for gasoline, was in July (8.2% increase) when it went from $2.94 to $3.18. Interestingly, July also showed the largest price change for diesel going from $2.13 to $2.37 (11.3% increase).

 

Fuel Prices – Feb to Dec 2016

Now let’s look at 2016. First things first, notice the absence of values for January. I can’t seem to find – via my data sources – any price change info for that month.

Here’s the 2016 gasoline vs. diesel price graph:

Highlights for 2016:

Barbadians paid an average of $2.80 BDS per litre for gasoline and $1.97 BDS per litre for diesel.  

For gasoline, July was the most expensive month at $2.93 per litre. For diesel, it was December at $2.12.

Largest price change was in May, $2.63 to $2.79 (6.1%), and October $1.95 to $2.09 (7.2%), for gasoline and diesel respectively.

 

Now, let’s combine 2016 and 2017 for Gasoline and Diesel

Prices for gasoline and diesel have steadily increased between Feb 2016 and Sep 2017. From Feb 16 to Oct 16 prices for both fuels appear to move in a similar direction. However, between Nov 16 and May 17, gas and diesel prices appear to move differently. From Jun 17 to Sep 17, both prices resumed moving in a similar direction.

So there you have it. A basic analysis of fuel price data between 2016 and 2017. I’ll be adding the previous years over the next few days/weeks, time permitting.