BALTIMORE, MD—After holding steady last week, the nation’s average gas price has returned to decline, falling 4.3 cents from a week ago to $3.33 per gallon this week according to GasBuddy data compiled from more than 11 million individual price reports covering over 150,000 gas stations across the country.

The national average is down 17.6 cents from a month ago and 26.3 cents per gallon lower than a year ago. The national average price of diesel has fallen 7.7 cents in the last week and stands at $4.38 per gallon.

“The national average has resumed its decline after a pause last week as oil and wholesale gasoline prices fell on worrisome inflation figures showing the Fed likely to ramp up rates to slow inflation,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.

“Some nine out of 10 states saw declines over the last week, so the drops are showing up for most across the country, with the exception of the West Coast as the transition to summer blends continues, and in the Great Lakes, where prices cycled last week but have now resumed declining,” De Haan added. “For the weeks ahead, tradition tells us to expect prices to move up eventually, but that could be at least be partially offset by inflationary data that continues to be hotter than expected, leading to anxiety that the Fed will boost interest rates and cooling the economy and oil demand considerably.”

The most common U.S. gas price encountered by motorists stood at $3.19 per gallon, down 10 cents from last week, followed by $2.99, $3.09, $3.29, and $3.39 rounding out the top five most common prices.  The median U.S. gas price is $3.19 per gallon, down 8 cents from last week and about 14 cents lower than the national average.  The top 10% of stations in the country average $4.57 per gallon, while the bottom 10% average $2.77 per gallon.  The states with the lowest average prices: Texas ($2.87), Mississippi ($2.92), and Oklahoma ($2.93).  The states with the highest average prices: Hawaii ($4.83), California ($4.72), and Nevada ($4.20).

See previous gas price reports here

In the Baltimore metro area, the cheapest gas this week could be found at the following locations:

Photo via Pixabay