I do not understand why fuel costs are factored as arbiters of inflation. Oil company prices never seem to have anything to do with supply. The price never seems to come back down during times of peak supply and always go up when even the slightest dip in supply happens.
OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) was the primary determiner of gas prices. Now it’s more an influence of NACS (National Association of Convenience Stores). They set prices in blocks to maximize profits while remaining fairly competitive in a region.
Fuel is one of the items included, the article notes its large increase was one of the contributing drivers, Housing has much more of a weighting and therefore impact. There are many other items included in the calculations. Given most Americans are dependent on a car for transportation and the gas makes up the majority of the regular costs it would be a failure not to include it.
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