U.S. retail gasoline demand was little changed last week but fell compared with year-earlier levels because of  holiday and travel fluctuations, MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse report showed Tuesday.

Average gasoline demand was down 0.2 percent, to 8.4 million barrels-per-day, in the week to Jan. 7. Demand was off 2.9 percent from a year earlier.

Reduced commutes over the holiday week before New Year’s and a major Northeastern storm after Christmas had pulled gasoline demand 12.5 percent lower in the week to Dec. 31.

Over the latest four weeks, U.S. gasoline consumption was 0.9 percent lower year-over-year.

Average retail gasoline prices went up a penny to $3.07 a gallon, cooling off some of the upward momentum they showed the last few weeks.

However, prices are 13.7 percent higher than a year ago and at a level they haven’t reached since October 2008, according to MasterCard.

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