{"id":204734,"date":"2026-03-14T17:36:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T17:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/204734\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T17:36:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T17:36:45","slug":"how-the-iran-war-and-surging-oil-prices-are-affecting-consumers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/204734\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Iran war and surging oil prices are affecting consumers"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 As the war in Iran ratchets up, the price of crude oil<\/a> has been swinging sharply. Consumers are already feeling the effects of the war and its destabilizing effect on worldwide energy production.<\/p>\n

Gasoline prices are climbing, and many people will find some of the most immediate economic pain at the pump.<\/a><\/p>\n

But you don\u2019t have to drive a car to be affected. Nearly all goods \u2014 including food \u2014 that are bought and sold must travel from where they\u2019re produced. Those costs will climb with higher gasoline, diesel and jet fuel prices.<\/p>\n

And the spike in oil prices \u2014 surpassing $110 a barrel, then retreating \u2014 will likely be a big factor for U.S. inflation.<\/a> As the war continues<\/a>, some experts say the price of, well, everything could be affected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe longer this lasts, the more significant the shock would be,\u201d said Gregory Daco, chief economist at consulting firm EY-Parthenon.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how the growing cost of oil and gas could impact consumers as the war continues.<\/p>\n

President Trump bragged about low gas prices. The Iran conflict has him doing an about-face.<\/a><\/p>\n

At the pump: Gas prices are likely to continue climbing<\/p>\n

Gasoline, diesel and jet fuel are made from crude oil. As the cost of crude climbs<\/a>, so do the prices of those widely used products, which keep equipment, cars, buses, delivery trucks and airplanes running.<\/p>\n

Across the U.S., drivers were paying an average of $3.58 for a gallon of regular gasoline Wednesday, compared with $2.98 before the war started. Prices have increased about 20% since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran.<\/p>\n

Prices vary across states. In California, drivers were paying $5.34. Some of California\u2019s refineries have shut down in recent years, so the massive state relies on imports of gasoline and other refined products from Asia.<\/p>\n

By contrast, the average price in Louisiana, which has oil production and refineries, was $3.20.<\/p>\n

The spike in oil prices is likely to further push up gasoline prices<\/a>, and could be felt more significantly in Asia and Europe, which are more dependent on Middle Eastern oil and gas than the United States.<\/p>\n

In a time of war with Iran, Americans unite in aggravation over sticker shock at the gas pump<\/a><\/p>\n

The cost of shipping and goods increases alongside the price of diesel<\/p>\n

The price of diesel \u2014 which powers 18-wheeler trucks \u2014 has been climbing, too: to $4.83 a gallon in the U.S., a 28% jump since the war started.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan\u2019t underscore what a massive jolt this is to the logistics, trucking, (agriculture) sectors,\u201d Patrick De Haan, a petroleum analyst at GasBuddy, wrote on X Monday.<\/p>\n

The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, the waterway that carries a fifth of the world\u2019s crude oil and liquefied natural gas, already has caused problems for the shipping industry. Quickly rising oil and gas prices will add to the burden.<\/p>\n

Fuel prices account for 50% to 60% of the total operating cost of shipping goods by ship, according to Patrick Penfield, professor of supply chain practice at Syracuse University, so higher fuel prices have a huge effect on the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen fuel prices start to go up, everything starts to slow down,\u201d Penfield said. \u201cSo your ships slow down, your trucks slow down. People are less apt to ship things via air. And it really kind of causes a drag on the economy when fuel price go up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fuel surcharges will also rise \u2014 as shipping companies aim to pass along higher costs to their customers, ultimately making goods more expensive.<\/p>\n

What to know about the Strait of Hormuz, a key passageway essential for the global energy supply<\/a><\/p>\n

Home energy bills will probably rise, and items made from plastic could cost more<\/p>\n

Heating your home and cooking food with natural gas are also likely to cost more as the war grinds on<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Europe\u2019s benchmark natural gas rose 75% since the war began, according to data from the Intercontinental Exchange.<\/p>\n

That could also affect the cost of products made from natural gas, such as petrochemical feedstock. It\u2019s used to make plastic and rubber, as well as nitrogen fertilizer.<\/p>\n

Eventually, groceries might be more expensive, too<\/p>\n

The spike in oil prices likely won\u2019t be felt immediately at U.S. grocery stores, said David Ortega, a professor of food economics and policy at Michigan State University. But if oil prices remain high for a month or more, he said, \u201cwe\u2019re in different territory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Higher oil prices impact the agricultural sector in two ways, Ortega said. They raise the cost of inputs such as fuel for farm equipment and the fertilizer, which is derived from natural gas. They also raise demand for soybean oil, palm oil and other vegetable oils that can be used as replacements for petroleum-based fuel.<\/p>\n

But Ortega said on-farm costs are only a small part of what consumers pay at the supermarket. A larger share comes from the cost of processing and transporting food, which uses a lot of energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cFood gets to the grocery store on diesel, whether it\u2019s on a truck or on a boat,\u201d Ortega said.<\/p>\n

If oil prices remain elevated, fresh foods that must be transported quickly could see price hikes more quickly than packaged foods, which are less perishable, Ortega said.<\/p>\n

If inflation rises, everything gets more expensive<\/p>\n

With U.S. oil prices increasing by roughly 42% from their prewar levels, to roughly $95 a barrel from about $67 before the conflict, that could push up inflation in the United States from 2.4% in January to 3% or higher in the coming months, according to a rough estimate by economists at JPMorgan.<\/p>\n

Economist Daco, of EY-Parthenon, estimated that the bump in gas prices could push monthly inflation to as high as 1% in March, which would be the highest monthly increase in four years. Yearly inflation would near 3% in that case.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a significant shock in and of itself,\u201d Daco said.<\/p>\n

Key inflation gauge worsened in January, before Iran war lifted gas prices<\/a><\/p>\n

Some experts say consumer spending will decrease<\/p>\n

Mark Mathews, chief economist and executive director of research at the National Retail Federation, said higher gas prices would likely affect consumer spending, particularly lower-income shoppers.<\/p>\n

U.S. households pay on average $2,500 a year, or nearly $50 a week, to fill up their tank, he said. If consumers are paying, say, $10 more per week, he said, their budgets are certainly affected.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do they offset that?\u201d he said. \u201cGoing out to a movie theater or going to a theme park or going out to eat \u2014 all those areas would be \u2026 more likely see cuts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some see hope that prices stay down \u2014 for now<\/p>\n

Mathews expects that retailers will absorb higher transportation costs for a while \u2014 as many did with higher tariff s \u2014 before they increase prices.<\/p>\n

Italian Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti warned against passing along higher energy costs to consumers, recalling the lessons learned after Russia invaded Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must act immediately to stop energy prices from spreading to all consumer goods, as happened in 2022,\u201d he told a Monday G7 meeting in Brussels, according to a statement from his office.<\/p>\n

Ed Anderson, a professor of supply chain and operations management for the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas, said shippers won\u2019t immediately pass on costs to customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the conflict is only in the short run, companies will eat it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rugaber reported from Washington. Associated Press journalists Nicole Winfield in Rome, Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit and Anne D\u2019Innocenzio in New York contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 As the war in Iran ratchets up, the price of crude oil has been swinging…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151,910,918,3607,2631,24644,223,287,3317],"class_list":["post-204734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-latest-headlines","tag-national-news","tag-national-politics","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}