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AAA: Economy continues to push gasoline prices south

By Palm Beach Business.com

DELRAY BEACH — Gasoline prices continued to fall over the past week, brought down on predictions of a less-robust economy, and should fall even more this week.

Nationally, the average price of a gallon of regular dropped to $3.652 from $3.713 a week ago and $3.849 a month ago, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In Florida, regular dropped to $3.566 a gallon from $3.601 a week earlier and $3.789 a month prior.

Palm Beach County saw prices drop to $3.722 a gallon from $3.759 a week ago and $3.943 a month ago, according to AAA’s Fuel Gauge Report for Monday. In Broward, regular averaged $3.713 a gallon, down from $3.748 a month ago.

Crude oil settled Friday at $93.01 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange — $6.28 less than the previous week — while rising 25 cents on Monday. The International Monetary Fund cut the U.S. economic growth outlook to 2.5 percent this year, from 2.7 percent previously projected based on a slow economic recovery and poor job market.

Consumer sentiment in the U.S. also fell to 71.8 in June from 74.3, according to the Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary report for June.  Meanwhile, U.S. stockpiles of crude oil rose to the highest level in almost 30 years in the month of May with a total of approximately 367 million barrels. The European debt crisis continues to push oil prices below $100 amid concern the global economic recovery will remain at a reduced pace than initially expected and lower global fuel demand.

"Oil prices are expected to drop further this week and push retail gas prices even lower," said Jessica Brady, spokesperson, AAA Auto Club South. "Retail gas prices reflected minimal decreases for the past two weeks as oil prices hovered around $100 a barrel. Now that oil prices dropped below $95, consumers can expect gas prices to fall another 5 to 10 cents this week."