Americans are feeling the pain of petrol inflation every time they pull up to the pump. But a supersized surge in the cost of diesel is adding to economically damaging price rises just about everywhere else.
The national average price of diesel hit a fresh peak of $5.72 a gallon this week, up 75 per cent over the past year, according to data released on Monday by the US Energy Information Administration. It is one of the sharpest fuel cost increases on record. The national average price of petrol, which cracked $5 a gallon on Saturday, has risen about 60 per cent over the same time.
The surge in the price of diesel, a workhorse fuel, is coursing through the US economy, helping to push price increases in the world’s largest economy to 40-year highs. US government data on Friday showed the inflation rate in May accelerated to 8.6 per cent compared with the previous year, the highest level since 1981.