Gas prices continue to rise

wpvi

By 6abc

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

October 20, 2009

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According to AAA, the national average for a gallon of regular gas rose ten cents in the past week to $2.58 a gallon. That's the largest one-week price jump since the beginning of the summer.

In Philadelphia, the average price is $2.56 per gallon. Across the bridge in New Jersey, it's $2.40 per gallon.

Prices are still about twelve percent below where prices were a year ago.

Analysts say the weakening dollar is behind the surge in gas prices.

Gas prices began to catch up to rising crude last Tuesday.

Retail gasoline rose 1.3 cents overnight to a national average of $2.577, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. Prices are now 9.9 cents higher than a week ago, but 34.6 cents below year-ago levels.

The average price for gas across the country has hovered below $2.50 since the end of September, but began to climb by a couple of cents every day since last week.

In the next week or so, consumers for the first time will probably see gasoline rise above comparable periods last year because prices at this point in 2008 were going into free fall as the economic crisis worsened.

Pump prices fell well below $2 by the end of 2008, something that is very unlikely to happen this year with crude prices rising and refiners making less gasoline.