US gasoline above $2.50 first time since Oct-Gov't

By Tom Doggett

WASHINGTON, June 1 (Reuters) - U.S. retail gasoline prices increased for the fourth week in a row, rising another 9 cents to $2.52 a gallon, the Energy Department said on Monday.

It is the first time gasoline surpassed $2.50 a gallon since last October.

The national price for regular unleaded gasoline jumped about 45 cents during May, but it was still down $1.45 from a year ago, the department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly survey of service stations.

Rising gasoline prices cut into the ability of consumers to spend on other goods and services that are needed for the economy to recover.

The jump in pump costs reflects the rise in crude oil prices, which settled at a 7-month high on Monday of $68.58 a barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange.

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu warned that rising crude oil prices will hurt the economy.

"The higher it goes in general ... it will impede the recovery," he said at the Reuters Global Energy Summit in Washington.

Chu said if crude oil costs climb "considerably higher" then the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will need to boost its oil production to help stabilize prices.