Clayton News Daily

Motorists will pay an average of 5 cents less for regular unleaded gasoline in Georgia, in the coming week, according to a spokeswoman for AAA Auto Club South.

The average price of a gallon of regular, unleaded gasoline in the state is $3.50 this week, compared to $3.55 last week, explained Jessica Brady. The average price nationally is $3.57, only a 2-cent decrease from the prior week.

“No matter how optimistic investors try to be at this time, they can’t ignore the sluggish economy, seen both here in the U.S., and abroad,” said Brady. “Retail gas prices have consistently decreased throughout the past week.”

Prices are expected to continue to decline into the Labor Day holiday, Sept. 5, she added.

Brady said crude oil prices fell last week, on Aug. 19, and settled at $82.26 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That price was $3.12 less than the week before.

The U.S. Department of Energy has indicated that oil prices are also falling as a result of U.S. oil inventories increasing by more than 4.2 million barrels, recently, for a total of 354 million barrels in U.S. stockpiles, Brady said.

She said because of slow economic growth, and a lag in fuel demand, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will not increase oil output, since there is already an ample supply in the market.