Average retail gasoline prices in Nashville fell 6.8 cents per gallon during the past week, averaging $3.71 per gallon as of yesterday, according to gasoline price website NashvilleGasPrices.com.

This compares with the national average that fell 4.2 cents per gallon (to $3.85) during the week.

Nashville-area gas prices Sunday were 4.1 cents per gallon higher than on the same day in 2011 and were 4.3 cents per gallon higher than they were four weeks ago. The national average decreased 0.7 cents per gallon during the last four weeks and stands 1.5 cents per gallon higher than on this day one year ago.

“Average gasoline prices nationally continue to slowly drop,” GasBuddy.com Senior Petroleum Analyst Patrick DeHaan said in a release. “I'll go on the record and say that come Wednesday, I expect the national average in the U.S. will actually be lower than it was on the same day in 2011. Perhaps looking at the big picture with prices having failed to reach new records so far in 2012, we can restore some ‘gas sanity’ in this country. Prices go up and down every year, every season, regardless of whose name is on the ballot.”

GasBuddy operates NashvilleGasPrices.com and more than 250 similar websites that track gasoline prices at approximately 140,000 gasoline stations in the United States and Canada.