Petrol sales suffer 'huge drop'

Petrol sales have plummeted in the last five years, the AA have said.

In 2007, forecourts sold 22.87 billion litres of petrol but the annual figure had slid to 17.42 billion litres by 2012, Government statistics have highlighted.

Diesel sales, though, have risen slightly over the last five years, going up from 14.80 billion litres in 2007 to 16.73 billion litres in 2012.

Looking at the most recent years, the figures showed that the 2012 petrol total of 17.42 billion litres compared with 18.27 billion litres in 2011.

Diesel sales rose from 16.24 billion litres in 2011 to the 2012 figure of 16.73 billion.

Taking petrol and diesel sales together, fuel stations sold 37.67 billion litres of fuel in 2007 but only 34.16 billion litres in 2012.

The AA said that the decrease was equivalent to 35 days of fuel sales being lost since the start of the credit crunch.

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