Motorists bought an average 9.613 million barrels of the fuel a day in the week ended December 24, up from 9.19 million the previous week, the second-biggest payments network company said. That is the highest level of consumption since July 2 and the largest weekly increase in 10 months.
The average pump price rose 2 cents to $3 a gallon, 16% above [image-nocss] a year earlier and the highest level since October 17, 2008.
"Demand would be higher if gasoline prices were not as high as they are," John Gamel, director of economic analysis for SpendingPulse, told the news agency.
The surge in demand coincided with a jump in 2010 holiday retail sales, according to another SpendingPulse report. Sales from November 5 through December 24 rose 5.5% for the best performance in five years.
Gasoline demand was helped by Christmas falling on a Saturday, making Christmas Eve a holiday and giving consumers five weekdays to shop, Gamel said. In 2009, when Christmas fell on a Friday, demand dropped 3.3% that week and 3.5% the following week, which ended on New Year's Day.
"We're cautiously optimistic about demand, but in the past a fairly large drop the week after the holiday would not be out of the question," Gamel said. "And it seems the $3 mark is a magical threshold. People will start to look at their gasoline bill and see if they can cut back."
Fuel consumption was up 3.9% from a year earlier, the largest gain in that measure since July 23.
Averaged over four weeks, gasoline use was 0.4% below the same period in 2009. The four-week average has been less than the year-earlier level for 14 consecutive weeks.
Year-to-date, fuel demand is up 0.3% from the same period in 2009, the same as the prior week.
The highest demand this year was 9.71 million barrels a day in the week ended May 28. The lowest was 8.84 million in the week ended September 10.
The report from Purchase, N.Y.-based MasterCard is assembled by MasterCard Advisors, the company's consulting arm. The information is based on credit-card swipes and cash and check payments at about 140,000 U.S. gas stations.
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