Premium gasoline reaches ten dollars per gallon

There’s good news and bad news tonight for inflation weary consumers. The bad news is that gasoline has finally reached the shock inducing price of ten dollars per gallon. The good news is that according to Government, the pump price would have been much higher if Belmopan had not intervened to absorb some of the hit. For the record, as of midnight tonight the new prices are ten dollars for premium gasoline, nine seventy-five for regular, seven forty-one for diesel, and a whopping seven forty-eight for kerosene. According to the press release, of an acquisition cost hike of ninety-five cents for premium, government absorbed seventy-nine cents; of the forty-five cents raise for regular, government swallowed twenty-three; of diesel’s ninety-two cent jump, G.O.B. covered sixty-one; and of the massive two dollars and two cent leap for kerosene, Belmopan ate seventy-nine cents. The crazy jump in acquisition costs is attributed to the effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on U.S. Gulf Coast refining capacity. If it’s any comfort, the immediate spike in post-Katrina prices in the U.S. was followed by modest reductions in the weeks after the storm.