U.S. Gasoline Demand Falls 3.3% From Last Year, MasterCard Says
U.S. gasoline demand fell 3.3 percent from a year earlier as average prices at the pump gained 35 percent, according to MasterCard Inc. (MA)
Motorists bought 9.11 million barrels a day in the week ended Aug. 5, the second-biggest payments network company said in its SpendingPulse report. Consumption was down 1.8 percent from the previous week. The average pump price was $3.70 a gallon, unchanged from the week before.
Averaged over four weeks, gasoline use was 2.2 percent below a year earlier, John Gamel, director of economic analysis for SpendingPulse, said in the report. It was the 20th week in a row that demand fell on that basis, Gamel said.
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. (V) is the biggest payments network company by transactions processed.
To contact the reporter on this story: Barbara Powell in Dallas at bpowell4@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net
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