According to the RAC’s July Fuel Watch, the reduction in the price of unleaded was only small – 0.41p from 112.20p to 111.79p – but it reversed the rising price trend which began in March.

The average price of diesel also fell, but even more slightly by 0.06p from 112.47p to 112.41p.

The fall in pump prices is down to a reduction in the wholesale cost of both petrol and diesel, which led the RAC to make a public plea to retailers last Thursday to cut their prices. By Monday, many of the major supermarkets, which together are responsible for selling around 40% of the UK’s fuel, had knocked 2p a litre off both petrol and diesel prices.

RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: “July’s slight reduction in fuel prices is very welcome as it has ended four months of rising prices on the forecourt. We are hopeful that the early August supermarket cut will make a bigger difference to household budgets in the summer holiday period even though it came more than a week later than it should have done.

“The falling price of fuel on the wholesale market is being driven by fears of slowing global economic growth adding to an existing oversupply of both crude oil and refined products such as petrol and diesel. Interestingly, this has happened at a time when there are oil supply disruptions in Nigeria and Libya which had they not occurred would have meant there was even more oil on the world market.

“As it is motorists continue to benefit from the lower oil price which had led to petrol prices that are nearly 5p a litre cheaper than a year ago and diesel that’s more than 3p a litre less expensive.”