Motorists likely have experienced a bit of relief in the past week as gas prices have steadily declined.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the average price per gallon of regular unleaded for Atlanta was $3.55 — down 8.6 cents from a week ago.
According to GasBuddy.com, the cheapest gas in Gainesville Tuesday was $3.46 at the Citgo at the intersection of Browns Bridge Road and Waldrip Circle.
This downward price trend, however, is expected to slow and costs will remain fairly steady in the near future, said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for
GasBuddy.com.
"Oil prices actually bumped back up from their low about a week ago," he said.
Last week, the price of a barrel of oil reached as low as $76, but has since climbed to just below $87.
"The concern is we will stop seeing these drops at the pump and prices may actually remain a little stable, at least in the very short term," DeHaan said.
Even with the recent oil price increase, DeHaan said gas prices should not experience a significant jump anytime soon.
"I don't see any sort of big increases ahead," he said.
"It's possible it may go up a few cents, down a few cents, but nothing major, at least at this time in regards to gas prices."
Jessica Brady, public relations manager for AAA Auto Club South, said crude oil prices should continue to trade for under $90 a barrel through the rest of August.
With so much fluctuation in the stock market in the past week, gas prices have been directly impacted by the uncertainty in the economy. The large point drops in the Dow Jones Industrial average last week led to a decrease in oil demand, resulting in cheaper prices at the pump.
"Bad economic news generally will mean that there will be less oil demand," DeHaan said.
"If there's a lot of people unemployed, if the GDP (gross domestic product) is negative, there's obviously issues and that will mean less oil consumption and that will mean a drop in prices."
The fluctuating economy has not only worried investors but fuel retailers as well, Brady said.
"I think retailers were a bit hesitant at first to drop prices because it's been such a volatile market, which it still is," she said.
A positive outlook in the most recent unemployment report, however, has been a significant influence to the most recent oil price trend, DeHaan said.
"We saw a little better than expected unemployment report that showed that less Americans were applying for unemployment than expected, and so the thinking is that if there's less people filing new claims for unemployment then there's more people working, that the economy is doing better and that generally pushes up oil prices," he said.
The recent U.S. credit downgrade, as well as a weak manufacturing report resulted in a gloomy economic outlook and in turn dropped crude oil prices, DeHaan said.
"It certainly was a big reason why the stock market and oil prices collapsed and lost 25 percent of their value," he said. "All the sudden we saw those two pieces of news and we're worried about the future, we're worried about the economy."
Brady said the only way she foresees the price of oil to decrease in the near future is if the value of the dollar decreases.
"As it stands right now we're still looking at some pretty gloomy economic news, not just here but also internationally," she said "With that comes a decrease in fuel demand and in turn keeping crude prices down."