Prices at the pump in Florida dipped during the past week, a trend expected to continue in the short term after increases in January.
The AAA auto club said the average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline Monday in Florida was $3.49, down seven cents from a week earlier.
The national average Monday was $3.47 a gallon. The Florida average was 2 cents higher than a year ago.
"Pump prices are moving lower again after a sharp drop in the oil and gasoline futures markets," AAA spokesman Mark Jenkins said in a statement. "Oil prices are 10% lower than two weeks ago. Meanwhile, wholesale gasoline prices have fallen almost 40 cents. Unless the market suddenly rebounds, drivers could see gas prices drop another 5 to 15 cents this week."
Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis with the fuel-savings app GasBuddy, tweeted that “with today’s market solidly in the red, we could see gas prices decline over the next week or two!”
The West Palm Beach area had Florida’s highest average price at $3.70 a gallon, while the lowest was in the Panama City area at $3.26 a gallon.