The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Riverside County dropped four-tenths of a cent Saturday to $5.533.
The average price is 1.8 cents less than one week ago, but 28 cents more than one month ago and $1.22 more than one year ago, according to figures from the AAA and Oil Price Information Service.
It has increased 98.2 cents since the start of the joint U.S./Israel attack on Iran on Feb. 28, which sent oil prices higher and drastically accelerated increases at the gas pump.
The national average price dropped seven-tenths of a cent to $4.07, after increasing for four consecutive days. It is 4.8 cents more than one week ago, 18.1 cents more than one month ago and 91.7 cents more than one year ago. It has increased $1.088 since the attack on Iran.
The national average price is at its highest amount this late in the calendar year after never topping $4 on Aug. 14 in any previous year, according to Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, which provides real-time gas price information from more than 150,000 stations.