US consumers last year took advantage of lower petrol prices to drive more and splash out on more expensive gasoline, as well as dining out at restaurants, as they spent the majority of savings from the oil price tumble.

from the JPMorgan Chase Institute examining an anonymised sample of 1m Chase customers across 23 states shows that households spent 58 per cent of their potential savings from lower oil prices in 2015. Of this, the biggest business beneficiaries were restaurants and retailers, with households boosting spending on non-gas goods and services by $200.

Lower petrol prices also prompted them to change travelling habits, as households spent $150 of their potential savings at gas stations while forking out less on public transport. While petrol prices were 25 per cent lower in 2015 than 2014, spending at petrol stations only fell 19 per cent, the research found.

“This uptick in spending at gas stations could be attributable to an increase in the number of gallons purchased, a shift to more expensive gas options, or an increase in purchases at convenience stores located at gas stations,” the report found. “In 2015, this contributed to a reversal of the five-year trend of declining real gas consumption and vehicle miles travelled.”

The fate of America’s savings at the pump has been the subject of intense debate ever since the oil price slide began. Some economists have argued that households were being ultra-conservative and saving more, but JPMorgan’s analysis suggests households spent the bulk of their $630 in potential savings. Petrol prices as surveyed by JPMorgan were $2.60 on average in 2015, compared with $3.47 the year before.

Some 45 per cent of the drop in petrol spending, or $200, went on non-gas goods and services, mainly restaurants and retail. The sting in the tail is that these sectors may be most vulnerable to a setback if oil prices see a major resurgence, JPMorgan noted.

Oil prices rose for a second day on Thursday, with Brent crude futures trading at $49.30 a barrel.

So where did the remainder of the petrol-related windfall end up? Some of the savings may have been spent on vehicles or other durable goods, which did not show up in debit and credit card transactions. In addition, households may well have stashed away some of the unexpected savings. The personal savings rate increased from 4.8 per cent in 2014 to 5.1 per cent in 2015, according to official data.

The potential savings from the petrol-price drop were significant for many American households. For a middle-income household, they amounted to more than half of one month’s rent or mortgage payment.

Households earning less than $30,000 benefited the most, the research concluded: their saving from lower petrol prices was the equivalent of a 1.4 per cent boost to discretionary income.

In spite of renewed global economic and political tumult, US policymakers have been counting on American households to keep domestic growth on track in the second half of the year. from the latest policy meeting of the US Federal Reserve showed participants believed consumer spending growth had picked up in the second quarter from the first.

However, some also struck a note of caution. “A few participants expressed caution about the outlook for consumer expenditures, noting that slower increases in employment and higher energy prices could restrain spending.”