Wednesday May 26, 2010
May 25 -- U.S. gasoline demand at the pump fell for the first time in four weeks as the average price for the fuel declined, MasterCard Inc. said.
Motorists bought an average 9.36 million barrels of gasoline a day in the week ended May 21, down 0.6 percent from a week earlier, the second-biggest payments network company said in its SpendingPulse report.
The average pump price for regular gasoline fell 5 cents to $2.83 a gallon. Prices are 20 percent above the same period last year, according to the report.
Daily fuel use over the past four weeks averaged 9.3 million barrels a day, up 0.3 percent from a year earlier. Year- to-date, demand is up 1 percent from 2009.
The coming holiday weekend brings a traditional rise in driving, said John Gamel, director of economic analysis for SpendingPulse. “We’re expecting there to be a noticeable increase starting Memorial Day weekend.”
The pickup in demand last year was mild, though in previous years “we’ve always had an increase” over the holiday, he said.
Demand for the week ended May 21 rose 2.6 percent in the Rocky Mountain region and 0.6 percent in the Midwest, while falling 1.1 percent on the East Coast and 1.7 percent in the Gulf Coast.
The report from Purchase, New York-based MasterCard is assembled by MasterCard Advisors, the company’s consulting arm. The information is based on credit-card swipes and cash and check payments at about 140,000 U.S. gasoline stations.
Visa Inc. is the biggest payments network company by transactions processed.
Source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-25/u-s-gasoline-demand-prices-fell-last-week-mastercard-says.html
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