Last April I blogged that “the average price of a gallon of gasoline reached $4.22 a gallon in the U.S. this past month, the highest nominal price ever and 16¢ higher than the previous record of $4.06 in July of 2008.” I then pointed out that the corrected for inflation using the CPI, that it was only 77% of the real price of gasoline in that month in 2008.
But from April to June the price continued to rise and reached its highest nominal level of the century of $4.93. But even this price in real terms is only 90% of the 2008 price and of the 277 months of the 21 century, the real price of gasoline in June this past year was only the 10th highest of them. Also, it was the 50th highest is hours of work needed to earn enough to buy a gallon of gasoline.
Where are we now? These days the “real price” of gasoline is about 5% below the average for this century. While the “work hours needed” is 13% below the average for this century.
The nominal price of gasoline in December 2022 of $3.21 was only larger than 77% of the monthly prices of the century. The lowest being $1.09 in December 2001 and the highest being $4.93 in June of 2022.
The real price of gasoline in December 2022 was larger than only 49% of the monthly real prices of the century. In current prices the lowest being $1.82 in December 2001 and the highest being $5.50 in June of 2008.
The “labor cost” of 10 gallons of gasoline in December 2022 was 1 hour and 8 minutes and was larger than only 39.5% of the monthly average times of the century. The lowest being 43 minutes in April 2020 and the highest being 2 hours and 14 minutes in June of 2008.
