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SALT LAKE CITY — Fuel and energy prices continue to be a major driver of record-high U.S. inflationary pressures, and a Tuesday report from the U.S. Department of Labor found consumer prices in March continued a streak of 40-year-highs, rising 8.5% over last year.
Utah, however, is among a group of Mountain West states that is seeing even higher price hikes, with an annual inflation rate of 10.4% in March. Other states in this group include Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and Wyoming.
According to the new federal report, the gasoline price index rose 18.3% in March and accounted for over half of the all-items monthly increase. Gas prices across the country are up 48% over the same time last year.
The March inflation numbers were the first to capture the full surge in gasoline prices that followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. Moscow's brutal attacks have triggered far-reaching Western sanctions against the Russian economy and have disrupted global food and energy markets.
And while most of the nation has seen average gas prices retreat from all-time records set in early March, western states are a higher-priced outlier in this sector.
According to a daily market report from AAA, the average gas price in Utah on Tuesday stood at $4.499 per gallon, just a tad shy of the state's all-time high of $4.508 set on April 9. The national average price for a gallon of regular came in at just under $4.10 on Tuesday.
Here are Tuesday's Utah average price per gallon of regular by metropolitan area, according to AAA:
- Logan: $4.473
- Ogden: $4.471
- Provo: $4.463
- Salt Lake City: $4.471
- St. George: $4.615
Contributing: Associated Press
