Inflation in the United States rose sharply in March, government data showed Friday, as higher energy prices due to the war in the Middle East hit Americans hard.<\/p>\n
The nationwide sticker shock put pressure on President Donald Trump, who has ordered peace talks with Iran and faces mid-term elections in November.<\/p>\n
The rate of inflation rose to 3.3 percent year-on-year in March, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). By comparison, this same consumer price index (CPI) was 2.4 percent year-on-year a month earlier.<\/p>\n
Gasoline prices surged by 21.2 percent between February and March — the largest monthly increase since the government began publishing a related index in 1967, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said.<\/p>\n
Markets had anticipated the surge, according to the consensus published by MarketWatch.<\/p>\n
The United States and Israel began bombing Iran on February 28 and Tehran retaliated by blocking traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway used to carry a fifth of the world’s oil and gas deliveries.<\/p>\n
Despite being the world’s top producer of crude oil, the United States also felt the pain, as prices at the gas pump shot up.<\/p>\n
A gallon (3.78 liters) of regular gasoline currently costs an average of $4.15 in the United States, compared to approximately $3 just before the war.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration — elected in part on a promise to quash inflation — maintains that the war’s economic disruptions will be temporary.<\/p>\n
Reacting to the data, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said the US economy “remains on a solid trajectory.”<\/p>\n
Economic advisor Kevin Hassett claimed some wins for the White House, citing drops in the price of eggs, beef and concert tickets on Fox News.<\/p>\n
US Vice President JD Vance said he hoped for a “positive” outcome as he departed Washington for US-Iran peace talks in Pakistan this weekend.<\/p>\n
But experts predicted more economic pain ahead due to the war in Iran, especially for middle and lower-income households already squeezed by rising energy and airfare prices.<\/p>\n
Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, said that inflation soared in March to the highest level in almost two years.<\/p>\n
“This is only the beginning. Food prices, travel and shipping costs are all going up in April and will exacerbate the pain,” she said.<\/p>\n
“March CPI was as expected, so no surprises. But there is a huge increase in fuel prices, boosting inflation,” Christopher Low of FHN Financial told AFP.<\/p>\n
“And we got the news last night that the ceasefire is not being honored by either side, apparently,” he said. “There’s still very little traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.”<\/p>\n
Some economists calculate the oil price surge will cost each US household at least $350 per household.<\/p>\n
Consumer sentiment also dipped sharply — 11 percent — this month, according to a University of Michigan survey.<\/p>\n
During the Federal Reserve’s most recent meeting in mid-March, Chairman Jerome Powell said that the war risked delaying efforts to bring inflation under control in the United States.<\/p>\n
The US central bank’s target for inflation is two percent — an objective it has not met in five years due to the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine and tariffs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inflation in the United States rose sharply in March, government data showed Friday, as higher energy prices due…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-394613","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}