{"id":467166,"date":"2026-05-30T03:57:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T03:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/467166\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T03:57:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T03:57:14","slug":"is-the-iran-war-driving-up-prices-beyond-the-gas-pumps-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/467166\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the Iran war driving up prices beyond the gas pumps? \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Commerce Department report finds U.S. inflation hit three-year high in AprilSaving rates also declined last month as income levels flattened outIran war fallout is driving up prices beyond energy categories<\/p>\n

Two separate federal reports have now found inflation hit a three-year high in April as fallout from the Iran war drives price spikes on gas and other petroleum products and, increasingly, a wide range of basic necessities.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index<\/a> from the U.S. Commerce Department finds overall inflation hit 3.8% in April, up from March\u2019s 3.5% reading and the highest annual rate since May 2023. Core PCE inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, came in at 3.3% last month.<\/p>\n

The 12-month PCE reading for April matches the 3.8% rate found by the Labor Dept. in its Consumer Price Index report released earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s Commerce Department report also shows average incomes were flat for the month of April and disposable income, a post-tax measure, fell by 0.1%. The overall average consumer saving rate also declined last month, dropping to 2.6%, the lowest level since 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmericans are being squeezed financially,\u201d Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, wrote in a note Thursday, per a report from CNN. \u201cInflation is at a three-year high and personal savings has cratered to one of the lowest levels in the past 20 years. Many Americans are spending more than the income they have coming in. This is not sustainable, especially for lower-income and middle-class households.\u201d <\/p>\n

How will the Fed respond to inflation reports?\"\"A shopper walks with groceries at Dan’s Market in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News <\/p>\n

While the majority of April\u2019s inflation increase was driven by higher energy costs, a direct result of the ongoing Iran war and continued disruption of petroleum shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, economists predict higher costs are in store for a broad array of consumer goods. For example, a recent Purdue University analysis<\/a> predicts the broad energy shock precipitated by a sustained war could add three to six percentage points to grocery inflation over the coming 12 to 18 months.<\/p>\n

That scenario will likely provide a challenge for newly installed Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump\u2019s pick to replace the outgoing Fed chairman, Jerome Powell. <\/p>\n

Warsh is expected to navigate his new leadership role with an eye toward rate cuts but will need to get the Fed\u2019s board of governors on board in circumstances in which arguments for a rate reduction are likely to ring hollow.<\/p>\n

Interest rate adjustments are the Fed\u2019s primary tool for maintaining its dual mandate of maximum employment and price stability. Generally speaking, higher rates raise the cost of debt, slow the economy and reduce inflation. Lower rates reduce the cost of borrowing and boost the jobs sector.<\/p>\n

What consumers say about economic impacts of Middle East war\"\"Gabriel Colonna of Salt Lake City gets gas in Salt Lake City on Friday, May 22, 2026. | Laura Seitz, Deseret News <\/p>\n

Recent polling by the Deseret News in partnership with the University of Utah\u2019s Hinckley Institute of Politics finds households in Utah and across the country united in their concern over how economic fallout from the Iran war is challenging their financial well-being and ratcheting up anxieties.<\/p>\n

The survey revealed a striking level of worry among respondents in both the statewide and national samples, with 80% of Utah participants and 79% of national respondents saying that they\u2019re at least somewhat concerned about the war\u2019s impacts on the U.S. economy, with 51% and 50%, respectively, saying they are very concerned. Just 18% of Utah poll participants and 15% of national respondents said they were not too concerned or not at all concerned about the impacts.<\/p>\n

Overall concern about how the war in Iran is affecting household budgets was similarly widespread, with 87% of Utah respondents and 79% of national participants saying the cost of daily goods has increased somewhat or a great deal. Only 3% and 7%, respectively, report they are paying prices that are somewhat or a great deal lower since the war began.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Commerce Department report finds U.S. inflation hit three-year high in AprilSaving rates also declined last month as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[114,42,2101,43,40,38,41,39,71532],"class_list":["post-467166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-business","tag-headlines","tag-money","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-u-s-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}