Gas Prices in 1988

The average price rose 1.4% in 1988, to $0.92 a gallon, and fell 2.6% after inflation, to $2.50 in 2025 dollars, essentially the same real price as in 1986 ($2.49).

Crude oil prices were weak for most of the year. The OPEC price agreement that began in January 1987 had broken down as members produced above their quotas. In July 1988 Iran accepted a ceasefire in its war with Iraq, which removed a supply risk from the market and opened the prospect of more exports from both countries. In late November OPEC reached a new production accord with a ceiling of 18.5 million barrels a day for six months, which supported prices going into 1989.

In August 1988 Congress repealed the Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax, enacted in 1980 alongside the decontrol of crude prices. By then low oil prices meant the tax was raising little revenue. In the annual record, 1986 through 1988 are the three least expensive years of the 1980s after inflation, each between $2.49 and $2.56 in 2025 dollars.

The 1988 state averages run from $0.81 in Georgia to $1.19 in Hawaii, a 38.0¢ difference between the lowest-priced and highest-priced state. Above the U.S. average in 1988 were 29 of 51 states, a count that includes D.C., and those state figures cover all grades of gasoline.

Next to its neighbouring years, the U.S. annual average was $0.90 in 1987 and $1.00 in 1989. From 1988 to 1989 the average rose 9.4% at the pump, and it rose 4.4% in constant 2025 dollars.

At the pump, 1988 sits 44th-highest among the 56 complete years from 1970 to 2025. The U.S. average in 1978 was $0.66 at the pump, and in constant 2025 dollars the 1988 average fell 22.8% from its 1978 level. The series reached its highest constant-dollar annual average, $5.08, in 2012.

The 1988 national figure is the EIA State Energy Data System average, includes taxes and is approximate, as EIA figures before 2000 are. The site holds weekly data for none of the weeks of 1988, so every 1988 figure on this page is an annual one.