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Fuel prices are displayed on a sign as customers fill their vehicles at a gas station on April 13, 2026 in Miami, Florida. <\/p>\n
Joe Raedle | Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Inflation jumped<\/a> in April to the highest level in nearly three years as surging gas prices due to the Iran war<\/a> pushed up the cost of many consumer goods. <\/p>\n The consumer price index, a key inflation measure, rose 3.8% in April from a year earlier, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday. That’s\u00a0up from 3.3% in March<\/a>.<\/p>\n The April data paints a clearer picture of the financial fallout for consumers after, at that point, more than a month of conflict in the Middle East. <\/p>\n “American households are going to continue to struggle trying to manage through this, and that’s going to be the case for the foreseeable future,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Earlier this week, President\u00a0Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0rejected Iran’s latest proposal to end the war, sending oil futures higher. <\/p>\n Iran has continued to restrict energy supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway used to transport\u00a0about a fifth of the world’s oil<\/a>. “It’s like the aorta artery in your body,” said Brian Bethune, an economics professor at Boston College. “When that is choked down, it is the whole global economy that is affected.”<\/p>\n Oil prices \u2014 as measured by\u00a0Brent crude oil<\/a>, a global price benchmark \u2014 spiked to $118 per barrel by the end of April from roughly $70 per barrel before the conflict began. Prices remain above $107 a barrel<\/a> as of early Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Products refined from oil, such as gasoline and jet fuel, have risen sharply, too.<\/p>\n Gas prices soared about 50%\u00a0since the war with Iran began on Feb. 28 and are up 28.4% over the year, according to the CPI data. <\/p>\n Consumers paid a national average of $4.50 per gallon as of Tuesday, according to AAA<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 up from about $3.14 a year ago.<\/p>\n Airline fares also rose 20.7% over the past 12 months, according to the CPI data.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nHigh oil prices create a ‘double squeeze’<\/h2>\n