Gasoline Prices Remain Near 2009 High

MARK WILLIAMS

Gasoline prices remained near their highs for the year on Monday as a weaker dollar and rising global stock markets boosted oil prices.

Prices at the pump fell 0.4 cents overnight to $2.631 a gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. That is down 6 cents from the peak of $2.691 reached Oct. 30.

But the gap between now and a year ago continues to widen. Prices are 52.6 cents higher — about $25 more a month for a typical driver — than last year at this time, when gasoline prices slid along with oil prices as the recession took hold.

Higher prices for gasoline come even as demand for oil and gasoline remains soft.

The Energy Information Administration, in its weekly update released Monday afternoon, put the national average price for a gallon of unleaded regular at $2.629, down 3.7 cents from the previous week and the second straight weekly decline. The biggest drop was again in the Midwest, where pump prices fell 7 cents to $2.544 a gallon after falling almost 6 cents the week before.