{"id":590515,"date":"2026-04-17T21:53:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T21:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/590515\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T21:53:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T21:53:14","slug":"inflation-is-likely-here-to-stay-even-if-gas-prices-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/590515\/","title":{"rendered":"Inflation is likely here to stay, even if gas prices fall"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Strait of Hormuz is open again, but the economic damage from its closure isn\u2019t going away.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s foreign minister announced Friday that the critical waterway \u2014 through which roughly a fifth of the world\u2019s traded oil passes \u2014 is \u201ccompletely open<\/a>\u201d for as long as the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire holds. The 10-day deal<\/a> is set to last through at least April 26.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The reopening removes the most acute threat to the global energy supply after seven weeks of conflict that sent gas prices climbing, rattled Wall Street and squeezed household budgets across the country. But economists warn the shock has already moved through the economy, and much of it will stay.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrices for some things will come back, but not all the way back,\u201d Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody\u2019s Analytics, told MS NOW. \u201cPrices for other things, no, they\u2019re sticky. They won\u2019t come down. They\u2019re going to be permanently higher.\u201d<\/p>\n

The uncertainty of the past seven weeks echoes the pandemic recession, Zandi said, and the economy is again flirting with recession. An oil shock of this kind, he said, moves through the economy in three waves.<\/p>\n

The first is the most visible: prices at gas stations. Consumers pay a few cents more per gallon of gasoline, then a few cents more, and soon the increases start compounding. Retail gasoline is running roughly 21% higher than a month ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The second wave hits when those higher fuel costs affect everything else. Airfares climb with jet fuel. Ride-hailing and delivery trips cost more. Groceries rise as trucking and farm inputs grow more expensive. Car sales often slow when driving gets pricier, Zandi said. Construction materials climb, rippling into housing.<\/p>\n

Businesses and consumers absorb the difference. The U.S. Postal Service has already announced it will increase shipping prices 8%<\/a>, while UPS added a fuel surcharge<\/a> \u2014 costs that small retailers and e-commerce sellers say they cannot swallow on their own.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re probably going to have to pass this cost on to our customer,\u201d said Rahama Wright, owner of skin care company Shea Yeleen. \u201cAnd right now, everyone, they\u2019re tightening their wallets because of everything that\u2019s happening in our economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tRecommended<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAdam Hudacek<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAdam Hudacek is a desk associate for MS NOW covering national politics in Washington, D.C.\t\t<\/p>\n

\"MS<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a02026 Versant Media, LLC<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Strait of Hormuz is open again, but the economic damage from its closure isn\u2019t going away. Iran\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101],"class_list":["post-590515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}