Retail gasoline demand drops: MasterCard

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. retail gasoline demand plummeted more than 5 percent last week compared to the same week last year as high gasoline prices kept drivers off the road, MasterCard Advisors said Tuesday.

"We're not seeing the uptick that we've seen seasonally," said Michael McNamara, vice president of research and analysis at MasterCard Advisors.

Summer is the peak driving season in the United States, the world's largest energy consumer, but gasoline demand has slumped this year as gasoline prices have jumped over $4 per gallon.

After the Fourth of July holiday weekend, gasoline demand typically increases, but this year the post-holiday surge in demand did not materialize, McNamara said.

American motorists pumped an average of 9.429 million barrels per day in the week that ended July 11, unchanged from the previous week, but 5.2 percent lower than the same week a year ago.

Year-to-date, gasoline demand has dropped 2.18 percent compared with the same period last year.

Average gasoline prices reached another new record of $4.09 per gallon, inching up a cent from last week.

Demand data indicates that drivers are cutting back on pumping during the week, which suggests that they are finding alternatives to driving to work such as working fewer days a week, McNamara said.

The trend is in contrast to the spring, when motorists were cutting back on discretionary driving during the weekend, he said.