NEW YORK – Call it an Independence Day discount.

Gasoline prices usually peak in the summer. This year, however, they peaked a little earlier, on May 5. The subsequent slide has made gas about 24 cents per gallon cheaper than it was on Memorial Day.

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A motorist buys gas for his boat, getting an early start on holiday weekend traffic Friday in Burbank, Calif. The Associated Press

The national average now stands at $3.55 per gallon. That’s the cheapest gasoline has been since late March.

Also, rising fuel inventories, lower crude prices and the International Energy Agency’s decision June 23 to release 60 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves will further depress prices, said Tancred Lidderdale, a senior economist for the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration.

Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service, expects the national average to drop another 25 to 30 cents per gallon this year.

“Prices will be lower until we get to hurricane season, then who knows?” Kloza said.

Hurricanes that pass through the Gulf of Mexico can potentially disrupt oil production and force fuel prices higher.

While gas is cheaper than it was on Memorial Day, it’s hardly inexpensive. In fact, it’s still 79 cents more than a year ago. And the only other year gas prices were higher for the July Fourth holiday was 2008, when gas was around $4.10 per gallon.

The drop in gas costs is due to a decline in oil prices. Benchmark West Texas Intermediate has given up more than 16 percent since the beginning of May. The contract for August delivery lost 48 cents to settle at $94.94 per barrel Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In London, Brent crude fell 71 cents to settle at $111.77 per barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange.

Oil fell Friday after China reported that its manufacturing industry cooled off in June, slipping to its slowest pace in 28 months. Activity slowed down as credit tightened because of inflation-fighting measures and weaker overseas demand. The country is still expected to drive world oil demand for years, but a manufacturing slowdown could temper the demand for fuels.

In the United States, “gasoline demand for the year is slightly down, and the twin reasons are that underemployment is still very deep and we’re still paying a price premium of about 80 cents over a year ago,” said Camarillo, Calif., energy analyst Trilby Lundberg, who conducts a biweekly survey of about 2,500 filling stations nationwide.

Motorists bought an average of 9.33 million barrels a day of gasoline in the week ended June 24, 1.8 percent less than a year earlier, MasterCard, the second-biggest payments network company, said Tuesday.

— Bloomberg News contributed to this report.

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