Rising US retail gasoline costs have yet to significantly dampen demand - report
Higher retail gasoline prices are not significantly changing the habits of US drivers, allowing demand to remain mostly flat on a year-on-year basis, according to data released this week from MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse report.
For the week ending April 22, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that average retail pump prices rose four cents from the previous week to $3.85/gal.
However, gasoline demand dropped only 0.7% from the prior week, and was actually up 0.4% from the same week in 2010 – even as retail pump prices are 35% above year-earlier levels.
The SpendingPulse four-week moving average of gasoline demand was 2.0% lower than the same period of 2010, improving from a 2.1% decline in the previous week’s report.
While retail prices continue to climb, there seems to be no proportional drop in US consumption.
"This ... is the first time the four-week moving average year-over-year rate has not been weaker than what was recorded for the prior week, since the week ending February 11th," said SpendingPulse's John Gamel, in a release obtained by news agency Reuters.
"We're also seeing a leveling off in its rate of change of the four week moving average, with a smaller decline occurring each week."
Average retail gasoline prices have increased for 35 consecutive days, the EIA said on Wednesday, as crude values have continued to rise amid political turmoil in the Middle East and Africa and power outages at several US refineries.
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