Your Evening Briefing: US Gasoline Prices Fall for 60 Straight Days

Gasoline prices across America have fallen for 60 consecutive days. It’s the longest downward streak in more than a year and one which has arrived just in time for the holiday shopping season. Now that drivers aren’t forking over so much cash at the pump, retailers are hoping they’ll hand over the savings at the mall instead. A gallon of gasoline now costs $3.25 on average, more than 60 cents below the year’s peak in mid-September and about 30 cents cheaper than this time last year, according to data from the American Automobile Association. In 14 states , average prices are now less than $3 a gallon. Cheaper pump prices aren’t exactly good news in the struggle to slow global warming, but they’re likely welcome by President Joe Biden, whose reelection campaign has been based in part on the economy’s resilience through the pandemic, record low unemployment and steadily slowing inflation. While some polls indicate that last bit has yet to register with most consumers, lower gas prices are about as high profile as it gets. And one sign that cash is already flowing from gas stations to PlayStations came this weekend: US consumers spent a record $9.8 billion online during Black Friday.

To be sure, Americans are still feeling the pinch of high prices regardless of good news at the pump. After years of inflation, US consumers are still shouldering a burden unlike any seen in decades. It now requires $119.27 to buy the same goods and services a family could afford with $100 before the pandemic. Since early 2020, prices have risen about as much as they had in the full 10 years preceding the global health catastrophe. Here’s a look at how much living in the US costs has changed in the past few years.