TEHRAN, Apr 24 - American middle class consumers are enjoying the strongest wage growth in a decade, but higher gasoline prices are eating a good chunk of that increase for many, and it looks like pump prices are headed higher.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - Gasoline pump prices have already jumped about 25% this year, the fastest rate in three years. Donald Trump administration sanctions against Iranian crude oil exports had something to do with that, and this week’s move to tighten sanctions could soon send prices even higher.
Crude oil prices hit their highest in about six months on Tuesday. Some analysts expect the national average pump price, currently near $2.85 a gallon, will climb above $3 a gallon for the first time since 2014. Few goods prices aggravate US consumers as much as high gasoline prices, Reuters reported,
Those bigger paychecks helped pay for costlier gasoline after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allied producers including Russia reduced output to prop up prices. Retail prices for regular gasoline have risen around 55 cents a gallon so far this year from $2.30 at end of 2018, according to AAA, an automotive advocacy group.
Brent crude climbed 2.7 percent on Monday to $74.12 a barrel in afternoon London trading, after hitting a high of $74.31 in early Asia trading. West Texas Intermediate, the US marker, rose as much as 2.6 percent to a high of $65.87 in early New York trading, the highest intraday level in two weeks.
Oil prices have risen sharply this year, peaking above $72 a barrel due to voluntary and involuntary cuts by members of OPEC, the oil producers’ cartel, that have tightened supply.
On Monday morning, Washington announced that President Donald Trump had decided not to renew oil waivers, known as “Significant Reduction Exceptions”, given to China, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey.
On May 2018, the US President Donald Trump withdrew from 2015 multilateral nuclear agreement, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and re-imposed the sanctions that had been lifted under the accord.
Washington reinstated a series of unilateral sanctions against Iran in early August and re-impose a second batch in November which as Trump said the goal was to bring Iranian oil export to zero.
Source: Iran Press
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