Army and Air Force Exchange Service gas prices in Europe will drop Saturday after five straight weeks of increases drove regular gas up more than 35 cents a gallon.

Price reductions are steepest in the Netherlands, where diesel drops 33.2 cents a gallon. Both grades of unleaded gasoline sold in the country shed more than 16 cents a gallon.

Price drops in Germany and the United Kingdom, modest by comparison, will lower unleaded gasoline prices anywhere from 1.4 cents to 2.5 cents a gallon.

Diesel, however, continues to climb in Germany and the U.K. to $4.156 and $4.094, respectively. Both prices are new records.

To compensate for an earlier fuel price error, AAFES dropped its prices between 3 cents and 5 cents a gallon during a five-week period that ended March 21. AAFES has finished compensating customers for the error, Lt. Col. David Konop, an AAFES spokesman, said Thursday.

A weekly report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration indicates that gasoline prices have not increased as much as they would have if demand grew at “normal rates.” The report suggested that the slumping U.S. economy has had some effect in keeping prices from spiraling even higher.

The report also attributed much of the rising cost of diesel to strong overseas demand.

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