The national average price of gas in the U.S. dropped below $4 per gallon on Thursday for the first time since March, according to AAA.
At least 20 states have seen gas fall below $3.99, including Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, which have gas prices as low as $3.49 per gallon, AAA data show.
However, despite the recent drop, gas prices remain 25 percent higher than this time last year.
The news comes two months after the national average price of gas surpassed $5 per gallon for the first time ever.
Experts say high prices — for gas and other items hard hit by record inflation — have caused demand to plummet, which has worked to lessen the prices.
“Despite steadily falling gas prices during the peak of the summer driving season, fewer drivers fueled up last week,” the AAA said Monday. “It’s another sign that, for now, Americans are changing their driving habits to cope with higher pump prices.”
Meanwhile a AAA survey last month found that 64 percent of U.S. adult drivers changed their driving habits due to the cost of gas. Eighty-eight percent of those who said they changed their habits said they have been driving less.
“What we are starting to see is that widespread inflation has really made a weaker consumer,” Edward Moya, a senior market analyst with Oanda Corp, told the Wall Street Journal. “So what you have is a consumer that is not planning big trips. They are not fully back into the office.”
The Labor Department announced Wednesday that inflation surged 8.5 percent in July compared to the same month last year, down slightly from the four-decade high reached in June.
The drop in fuel prices caused the Consumer Price Index, a measure of the cost of goods and services, to fall slightly.
Excluding volatile food and fuel prices, core inflation rose 5.9 percent annually and 0.3 percent monthly.