There’s hope after two straight weeks of falling gasoline costs that filling up on the pump will proceed to get a bit much less painful over the following month.
The common for a daily gallon of gasoline in Massachusetts dropped 7 cents over the past week. The Bay State’s common gasoline worth is now $4.93 per gallon, which is 11 cents down from the file excessive of $5.04 two weeks in the past.
The present gasoline worth stays 20 cents increased than a month in the past ($4.73) and is a whopping $1.95 increased than final June 27 ($2.98). Gas costs skyrocketed following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“We still have a ways to go until the month-ago price, but we’re definitely heading in the right direction for the time being, and hopefully the trend continues,” Mark Schieldrop of AAA Northeast instructed the Herald on Monday.
“We should see prices continue ticking down over the next week or so,” he added. “Prices are still high, but we’re in a lot better place than we were. Slow and steady relief.”
A drop within the international worth of oil helped the nationwide common for a gallon of gasoline to fall for a second week, touchdown at $4.89.
Economic fears of a possible international recession resulting in much less demand for oil dropped the value to round $107 per barrel, down from $110 final week.
“There’s overall concern that demand is going to drop off because of the global economy slowing down,” Schieldrop stated. “People are feeling the overall temperature of the economy, and there’s a little bit of a chill in the wind, and we’ll see how it plays out in the long term.”
Ahead of the Fourth of July, AAA is predicting that automobile journey within the U.S. will surge regardless of the excessive gasoline costs.
AAA anticipates that 47.9 million individuals will journey 50 miles or extra from house over the vacation weekend — a rise of three.7% over 2021, bringing journey volumes simply shy of these seen in 2019.
The greatest shock — automobile journey — will set a brand new file regardless of traditionally excessive gasoline costs with 42 million individuals hitting the highway. Almost 1.37 million individuals from Massachusetts will journey, greater than 1.2 million by automobile, that are each increased than a 12 months in the past.
“There’s pent-up travel demand,” Schieldrop stated. “People are determined to travel, especially after the last couple of years during the pandemic.”
In Massachusetts, the busiest journey is predicted to happen on Thursday on I-93, I-95 and the Mass Pike. The largest enhance over typical visitors ought to happen on I-93 South from exits 20 to 4, the place visitors is predicted to be 103% increased than common.
The worst time to journey is predicted to be Thursday and Friday afternoons when vacationers heading to their locations combine with commuters heading house for the weekend.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”