Gasoline demand up 2.2 percent in Memorial Day week

NEW YORK (Reuters) - More Americans took to the road this Memorial Day week with prices nearly 40 percent below last year's levels, according to a MasterCard SpendingPulse report released Tuesday.

Demand for gasoline during the Memorial Day week, which ended on May 29, rose 2.2 percent from a year ago to 9 million barrels.

Average U.S. gasoline prices were up 10 cents from the previous week to $2.45 a gallon, but that was down 37.8 percent from the same week last year.

The Memorial Day holiday, which fell on May 25 this year, traditionally kicks off the summer driving season.

The increase in gasoline demand is a departure from last year, when a weakened economy and gasoline prices up to $4 a gallon discouraged Americans from traveling by car and caused retail gasoline demand to drop 4.7 percent, according to MasterCard's data.

Still, the uptick in demand during the holiday week may have been mitigated by a decline in demand of 1.4 percent the week leading up to the Memorial Day weekend.

The Mastercard data is in line with travel and auto group AAA's forecast before Memorial Day which predicted a 2.7 percent jump in auto travel during the holiday.

AAA also said it did not expect prices to rise above the $2.50 per gallon level this summer.

On Monday, U.S. retail gasoline prices rose above $2.50 a gallon for the first time since last October, according to government data.