WEST MICHIGAN — Don’t expect much relief at the gas pump in the coming months, according to the experts. Prices are expected to fluctuate between the $2 and $3 mark through the year.
It’s not something we haven’t seen before, though—prices should be comparable to what we’ve seen during the summer months in the past five years, aside from 2020.
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“What it felt like the last five summers, other than last summer, it's going to feel like this summer,” said Dr. Paul Isely, associate dean at GVSU’s Seidman College of Business.
Dr. Isely suspects prices will continue to slowly creep up as demand for gasoline increases substantially.
“The reason the price of oil--the reason the price of future prices of gasoline are going up is because there's a strong expectation of a really booming economy for the second half of this year,” he said Tuesday.
Conditions have improved for producing gasoline though.
“What we're seeing is that refineries that had gone offline because of the problems in Texas a month ago are getting back online, and we're starting to see an increase in production… which is a really good thing,” Dr. Isely said.
So, production has improved, but demand just keeps going up.
“Right now we're having an increase in the ability of refiners; we've had an increase in the total stocks here in the United States,” Dr. Isely said.
“All of that sort of lends us to thinking that the price of gasoline and the price of oil are going to trade sideways.”
Regardless, he says, this is an indicator that consumers are back out spending money and stimulating the economy.
Dr. Isely says, “We're expecting that the economy for the second half of this year is going to grow faster than any of us have seen in recent times. It's because of the amount of money the government's kicking in.”
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Gas Prices in Your Area— GasBuddy
