·
The pump price for a gallon of regular gasoline repeated the
prior week's decline and fell seven cents last week to $3.81 per gallon,
according to the U.S. Department of Energy survey. The price has now
fallen by 30 cents, or 7.4%, from the peak five weeks ago. Last week's
price for a gallon of regular gas was the lowest since late-May. For all
grades of gasoline the average price fell another seven cents to $3.86
per gallon.
· Yesterday the spot market price for a gallon of regular gasoline fell another two cents, from Friday, to $2.82 per gallon. That was versus last week's average of $2.92..
· Weekly gasoline prices can be found in Haver's WEEKLY database, daily prices are in the DAILY database.
· According to the U.S.
Department of Energy, though the demand for gasoline rose slightly w/w
but demand during the latest four weeks fell 2.6% from a year earlier.
That y/y decline nearly equaled the decline in gasoline demand three
years ago when Hurricane Katrina struck and it limited gasoline
supplies.
· The DOE figures are available in Haver's OILWKLY database.
· The price for a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell last week to an average $118.88 per barrel. That's down from the high early last week of 142.46.
· Prices for natural gas fell again w/w to an average $8.69 per mmbtu (+36.1% y/y). The high for natural gas prices was five weeks ago at $13.19/mmbtu.
· What Is the Optimal Inflation Rate? from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City is available here.
· Divorcing Money from Monetary Policy from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York can be found here.