Gas prices are said to have gone up as much as 8 cents a gallon last week in Florida. This was apparently in direct response to rising crude oil prices. Crude oil just recently closed to $479.66 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. This is the highest its been in six weeks.

Investors are pushing up the price on the belief that demand will increase in the United States as the economy starts to pick back up. Jessica Brady of the AAA Auto Club said that this week is very important to watch. This will give people a good idea on where crude prices and ultimately retail prices will be in the near future.

Jessica went on to note that the prices will likely continue to rise following the earthquake in Chile that forced oil refineries to shut down. Statewide in Florida, the average price of gas is $2.76 a gallon. This price does reflect the recent 8 cent increase.

In Tampa, the average gas price increased from $2.62 to $2.70. This is a year over year rise of about 80 cents per gallon, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. Bradenton Sarasota Venice reports an average gas price of $2.77. This marks a 6 cent increase from the previous week and a 79 percent increase from a year ago.

However, experts are warning that people need to be careful about pushing up gas prices too quickly. Although the economy is starting to recover, pushing up gas prices now could send people spiraling back into saving their money and not spending it. This would cause a lot of problems again for the travel industry, which is already struggling to keep its head above water.