Gasoline Demand Falls 2.7% Amid Record Prices, MasterCard Says
By Barbara Powell
June 24 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. gasoline demand fell 2.7 percent last week, a sign motorists are cutting back on vacation plans as pump prices touch records, a MasterCard Inc. report today showed.
Consumers purchased an average 9.45 million barrels of gasoline a day in the week ended June 20, down from 9.71 million a year earlier, MasterCard, the second-biggest credit-card company, said in its weekly SpendingPulse report. It was the ninth consecutive week of declines from the year-earlier period.
Demand rose 1.5 percent from the previous week.
``High gasoline prices are depressing the normal peak driving season that occurs this time of year,'' Michael McNamara, vice president of research and analysis for MasterCard Advisors, said in an e-mail.
The national average pump price for regular gasoline rose 3 cents to $4.07 a gallon, up 36 percent from a year earlier and the highest in data going back to October 2006, the report showed. Prices on the West Coast rose 7 cents to an average $4.45 a gallon.
The report from Purchase, New York-based MasterCard was assembled by MasterCard Advisors, the company's consulting arm, and is based on credit card swipes and cash and check payments at about 140,000 U.S. gasoline stations.
The Energy Department estimated demand of 9.25 million barrels a day for the week ended June 13. MasterCard said demand was 9.1 million barrels a day for the same period. The government's next petroleum report is set for release tomorrow.
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