Washington ? Record prices for gasoline and other fuels sent inflation rising in 2005 at the fastest pace in five years, and hopes for a slower increase this year could be dashed if energy costs keep surging.

Consumer prices rose by 3.4 percent in 2005 with 40 percent of the increase blamed on the biggest jump in energy costs since 1990. Energy was up 17.1 percent this past year, reflecting gasoline prices that for a time soared above $3 a gallon and crude oil prices that topped $70 per barrel.

There has been hope that inflation will slow to around 2.5 percent in 2006. But that is based on a belief that after two years of big increases, energy prices will calm down – something that has not yet occurred.

“Given the tightness of supply and demand, it isn’t taking much to push energy prices sharply higher,” said Oscar Gonzalez, chief economist at John Hancock Financial Services in Boston.

The 3.4 percent rise in overall inflation for the 12 months ending in December was slightly higher than a 3.3 percent increase in 2004 and was the biggest advance since a similar 3.4 percent rise in 2000.

The 17.1 percent jump in energy costs represented the biggest rise in this category since an 18.1 percent surge in 1990 when global oil markets were roiled by Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.