A litre of unleaded increased by 0.7p, having begun July at 114.47p, it rose to 115.17p according to RAC Fuel Watch data.

Diesel went up by a similar amount – 0.73p – from 115.27p to 116p. This means the cost of filling a typical 55-litre family car with either petrol or diesel remains above the £63 mark.

The rise following three months of falls comes as the price of oil increased by 6%. It started at  $48.98 and closed $2.83 higher at $51.81 in July. This contributed to a 2% rise in the wholesale cost of both fuels, which is likely to trickle down to higher pump prices in the next week or two.

Prices at the UK’s big four supermarkets, which are responsible for 44% of all petrol and diesel sold, increased more with the average cost of supermarket petrol going up a 0.91p from 111.14p to 112.05p and diesel by 0.83p from 111.63p to 112.46p.

Despite this, the current average price of a litre of petrol – 115.27p – is still more than 5p lower than the 2017 high of 120.45p seen on 19 February. And, the end of July diesel price of 116p is more than 6p a litre below this year’s high price of 122.35p (20 February).

RAC fuel spokesman, Simon Williams, said: “Sadly, July was the month when pump prices went up for the first time since April, albeit by just under a penny a litre. While this is not that significant in itself, wholesale prices have gone up due to the price of oil increasing by 6% in July, reversing June’s similar percentage drop.

“It remains to be seen how much impact this will prove to have on the forecourt. Fortunately, a barrel of oil is still quite a lot cheaper than it was at the end of March when it was just over $55 so this doesn’t automatically signal forecourt price rises.”