100 days into Iran war, Americans face higher prices
A hundred days into the US-Israel war on Iran, Americans are facing increasing financial pressure at the pump and at the grocery store in an economy already facing headwinds from United States President Donald Trump’s domestic and foreign policies, including tariffs. The war is
A hundred days into the US-Israel war on Iran, Americans are facing increasing financial pressure at the pump and at the grocery store in an economy already facing headwinds from United States President Donald Trump’s domestic and foreign policies, including tariffs.
The war is unpopular, with 66 percent of Americans disapproving of Trump’s handling of the conflict with Iran, according to a recent CBS News poll. That echoed comparable findings in an ABC News/Washington Post Ipsos poll that found that 61 percent of Americans said that military action in Iran was “a mistake”.
US consumers are especially feeling the pinch in their wallets. On average, households have spent $750 more in expenses due to the war, according to an analysis from Moody’s Analytics. The bulk of the spending is on energy-related expenses, with Americans spending an average of $447.19 more than usual.
“This is a big economic blow, ” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said in a post on X on the heels of the report, adding that the burden hits “already hard-pressed middle- and lower-income households”.
“Folks at middle income or lower income, they spend a bigger proportion of their income on goods and services each month than people at the higher levels of income who can save,” Michael Klein, professor of international economic affairs at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, told Al Jazeera.
“They spend more of their income on housing and food. And the prices of these have been going up by a lot.”
Petrol prices surged on Friday to $4.22 per gallon (3.78 litres) for regular fuel, compared with $2.98 per gallon on average on February 28, the day the US and Israel first struck Iran, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA), which tracks daily fuel prices.
Since then, Iran has retaliated by attacking energy infrastructure in the region and by throttling traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, from which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas is exported, sending prices for those commodities soaring.
