Gas prices are set to rise in Toronto. Here's the 'sweet spot' for when you should fill up

After a summer of record-high gas prices, Toronto drivers can expect a bit of a break at the pumps.

Gas Wizard, a website that tracks gas prices nationwide, has regular gas down by four cents on Friday. It currently sits at $1.54.9 per litre — the lowest price since last winter and well below June's high of $2.16 per litre.

"Take advantage," said Dan McTeague, who runs Gas Wizard in addition to being president of Canadians for Affordable Energy.

"This next couple of weeks are going to be, I think, the sweet spot," McTeague said. "I would expect that by the first or second week in September we'll start to see a major reversal in gasoline prices."

The reprieve comes after Canada's inflation rate fell to 7.6 per cent in July, after hitting a 39-year high of 8.1 per cent in June after a year of straight increases. Gasoline prices were the single biggest contributor to the overall rate increase.

"The big picture really is that it looks like we've seen the peak of price pressures," Stephen Brown, the senior Canada economist with Capital Economics, told CBC Toronto.

However, Brown said, "Where we end up is still a bit of an open question."

The Bank of Canada will make its next interest rate announcement on Sept. 7 and Brown said he expects it to be another hike.

"Overall there is some better news coming, but at the end of the day it's not going to get a lot better," he said.

"We are still at a point where things are much more expensive than they were six months or a year ago," said Sheila Block, senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

So while a break at the pumps is positive, Block said "it's not necessarily significant."