How US’ ‘stupid war’ with Iran torched fuel price stability in America

Petrol prices are displayed at a Chevron station in Los Angeles, California, on Tuesday.

Photo: AFP At a petrol station in the Washington suburbs, drivers confronted the harsh domestic repercussions of the war on Iran, as spiking fuel prices hit household budgets hard.

Jeanne Williams, 83, had just driven 160km from Richmond, Virginia, where she was visiting her elder sister. “That is horrible,” she said, stunned by the prices visible on the Liberty petrol station’s LED board. “I’m not angry.

I’m just bewildered, confused, unhappy,” she said. “Because we didn’t ask for the war.” On Tuesday, the average US price of a gallon (3.78 litres) of regular petrol crossed the psychological barrier of US$4, having increased 35 per cent since the US-Israeli strikes that launched the conflict, according to data from the AAA motor club.

The station where Williams stopped is situated along a busy road in the city of Falls Church, nestled between an Anglican church, an auto repair shop and a dentist’s office.

Prices there started at US$3.79 per gallon, provided you pay in cash.

Rates are higher if you use debit or credit cards.

A little further down the road, the rate was as high as US$4.25 per gallon.

Williams, a retired civil servant who is undergoing cancer treatment, considers her pension to be “fairly decent”, but as the US cost of living has risen, she has had to dip into her savings. “Luckily, I have no children.

I don’t have a spouse, so it’s just me and whatever I have I help my sister with.” US inflation has reduced from a peak of 9.1 per cent in the pandemic, but prices have remained stubbornly high and analysts warn the world’s largest economy has still not achieved price stability.

The years of higher-than-expected prices have battered US households.

A man fills up his motorcycle with petrol in Manhattan, New York City, on Tuesday.

Photo: AFP Eliza Winger, a US economist with Bloomberg, said that an increase in fuel prices does not just hit people at the pump, it also reduces their overall consumption, with possible knock-on effects for the economy. “We estimate that 10 per cent increase in oil prices reduces real consumer spending by around 0.2 per cent,” she said.

US fuel prices have increased by more than three times that amount since the start of the war.

And on Tuesday, a new US consumer confidence report showed that people’s inflation expectations had surged in March to levels last seen around seven months ago.

Luis Ramos, a 26-year-old N

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