Gasoline demand down on economic woes: MasterCard

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. retail gasoline demand dropped to its lowest level since September 2005 as gasoline demand dwindled due to the wider U.S. economic slowdown, MasterCard Advisors said Tuesday.

"There was a significant slowdown in consumer spending across most categories that we track," said Michael McNamara, vice president of research and analysis at MasterCard Advisors.

"It's kind of a ripple effect that runs through the different areas of consumer spending," he said.

Spending on consumer products from furniture to electronics fell more than 10 percent in September, and gasoline seemed to be following the general trend of consumer cutbacks, McNamara pointed out.

American motorists pumped an average of 8.625 million barrels per day in the week ended October 3, down 5 percent from the previous week, MasterCard said in its weekly SpendingPulse report.

Year-on-year, gasoline demand plunged 9.5 percent.

Gasoline prices fell as demand slowed, with the national average price down 12 cents at $3.71 per gallon, but are still 33.5 percent higher than they were at this time last year.

High gasoline prices have been a major factor in pressuring gasoline demand in the U.S. during the past year.

"The price story is still there, but the overall economic slowdown really seems to be capturing people over the last week or two, especially in the last week, and we think that might be showing up in some of these gasoline numbers as well," McNamara said.

The four-week average of gasoline consumption amounted to 8.921 million bpd, down 6.2 percent from a year ago.

Meanwhile, a Reuters poll showed energy analysts forecast that the Energy Information Administration would report a build in U.S. gasoline inventories when its weekly report is issued on Wednesday.

MasterCard Advisors estimates retail gasoline demand based on aggregate sales activity in the MasterCard payments system coupled with estimates for all other payment forms. MasterCard Advisors is a unit of MasterCard Inc.

(Reporting by Rebekah Kebede; Editing by John Picinich)