U.S. gasoline consumption increased by more than 2.6 percent last year thanks to a combination of lower oil prices and economic growth. In volume terms, consumption rose by around 240,000 barrels per day (bpd), one of the largest increases in the last 40 years, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration . Ordinarily, gasoline consumption is more influenced by macroeconomic variables such as growth, employment and incomes, as well as demographic variables such as the driving age population . Consumption is more weakly affected by prices in the short term. But significant changes do occur in response to a very large price move such as the one that has happened since the middle of 2014 ( http://tmsnrt.rs/1WG3wel and http://tmsnrt.rs/1WG5Py1 ). […]