Gas prices continue to drop in NEO

The current average price for a gallon of regular, unleaded gasoline in Northeast Ohio is $3.188, down a half cent per gallon from a week ago.

According to AAA’s Fuel Gauge, crude oil prices were up 96 cents Monday at the close of formal trading on the NYMEX finishing at $97.73, erasing the brief drop in prices that occurred last week.

The increase followed positive retail sales news indicating consumers spent more than $52 billion over the weekend, a nine percent increase from last year.

In addition to the holiday retail sales, crude prices followed an overall climb in the stock market in the wake of better economic news from Europe.

The current national retail average price for a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline is $3.295, which is 4.5 cents less than last week, 15.1 cents less than a month ago, but 43.8 cents more than the price one year ago.