The global energy shock stemming from the US-Israeli attacks on Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz was brought to bear on the Irish economy last month as wholesale fuel prices ballooned by 32.6 per cent in April alone, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) said on Friday.All wholesale fuel prices, including fuel oil and gas oil, also increased by 42.3 per cent compared with April 2025, the statistics agency said. The wholesale price index, which indicates the prices that businesses pay for inputs in a given month, is a key metric of inflation. Higher wholesale prices usually lead to higher consumer prices, although it can take weeks or months for businesses to pass on the full cost of rising input prices. The Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the transport of crude oil produced in the Gulf, has been effectively closed to traffic since late March, part of Iran’s response to the US-Israeli coalition’s attacks on the Islamic Republic since late February. Its closure led to an immediate spike in global oil prices as traders began to price in a loss of supply from the region.Friday’s CSO figures illustrate the early ripple effects from the closure.Rents and evictions soar as house price inflation slows Listen | 39:34The data reveals that Irish wholesale fuel oil prices rose by more than 50 per cent in April alone, while forms of gas oil other than auto diesel rose by 16.9 per cent.Fuel oil prices were at their highest recorded value since the CSO began compiling wholesale price data in 2021, said Deirdre Toher, a statistician in the agency’s prices division. Experts have warned that what has so far been experienced as an oil price shock could turn into a genuine supply crisis if the Strait remains closed for much longer.[ Ireland is over-exposed to energy price swingsOpens in new window ]International Energy Agency chief Fatih Birol said this week that oil markets will enter the “red zone” in July and August as stocks dwindle during the summer travel season. Meanwhile, wholesale electricity prices – the prices that energy retailers like Electric Ireland and others pay to generators before selling on the electricity to households and businesses – rose by a more modest 1.9 per cent, the CSO said. Although electricity prices rose by 18 per cent in the 12 months to the end of April, they have fallen by 66 per cent since the August 2022 peak, which followed the Russian invasion of Ukraine earlier that year.