>> Reporter: The Labor Department's core index  
of consumer prices rose in December by one tenth  
of a percent, but that does not include the cost of food  
and fuel, which most Americans pay for every day.  
Count those in, and the rate  
of increase was five times higher --  
the fastest pace in a year and a half.  
Cynthia Bowers has more.  
[ Background sounds ]  
>> Cynthia Bowers: With gasoline topping $3 a gallon in much  
of the country, for many Americans a fill-up is a  
budget buster.  
>> It's terrible, but what can you do?  
>> Cynthia Bowers: Prices at the pump have jumped 13.8%  
so far this year, on top of last year's 53.5% rise.  
The national average for a gallon of regular is 3.09,  
ranging from 2.81 in Wyoming to 3.70 in Hawaii.  
But big-city prices can go much higher.  
Try 4.30 a gallon at this DC station --  
>> That's pretty offensive.  
>> Cynthia Bowers: -- increases driven by the rising cost  
of crude oil, nearing a hundred dollars a barrel,  
an amount OPEC calls realistic.  
No wonder there's fear of $5-a-gallon gas.  
>> We're almost at 30 cent.  
>> Cynthia Bowers: Commodities analyst Phil Flynn disagrees.  
He points out the U.S. is actually exporting more gas  
than it's using, due to decreased demand.  
>> We're going to be using new kind of cars, electric cars,  
better technology, better mileage.  
We'll probably never consume as much gasoline as we did,  
you know, before the economic slowdown in 2007-2008.  
>> Cynthia Bowers: And if you think fuel prices are bad,  
just try taking a trip to the grocery store,  
where just last month fruit prices jumped more than 15%.  
Vegetable prices went up 23%.  
[Background noises] Dairy products are  
up nearly four percent.  
Meats, poultry, eggs and fish up five and a half percent.  
What remains to be seen is how these price hikes impact the  
economic recovery.  
The more money Americans spend on food and fuel,  
the less they have to spend on anything else.