It's bewildering. It's infuriating.

But it probably isn't enough to slow down the California economy.

As gasoline prices in California started easing Wednesday, experts said the historic spike will probably do little harm to the state's economic growth.

Even with motorists paying an extra 50 cents a gallon in the past week, fuel consumes a relatively small slice of the typical household budget. And as prices are starting to come down, the economic pain will be minimized.

"Probably it doesn't matter much," said Severin Borenstein, an energy economist at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.

Look at it this way: California uses around 40 million gallons a day, Borenstein said. That's a little more than one gallon for every man, woman and child. Even if prices stay where they are another 10 days, "that's not going to be earth-shattering," he said.

As it is, gas prices have begun inching downward, snapping a four-day string of record highs. AAA said Wednesday the statewide average gallon of regular unleaded fell a half penny overnight, to $4.666.

Analysts said the decline was aided by the California Air Resources Board's decision this week to let refiners begin blending cheaper, winter-grade fuel earlier than usual. The agency, responding to a call for help from Gov. Jerry Brown, is trying to counteract a nearly perfect storm of refinery and pipeline glitches that sent prices shooting up.

Wholesale prices in California fell 22 cents a gallon Wednesday, according to Bloomberg News. A prominent gasoline expert said retail pump prices should be declining a lot more rapidly than they have so far.

"This is a joke how slow prices are falling," said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy.com.

Motorists don't find it very funny, though.

Jon Pierre Jackson, a Sacramento State and Sacramento City College student who was putting gas into his 1992 Honda Civic at a midtown 76 station Wednesday, said the higher prices are more than a mere inconvenience.

"I don't fill up my tank anymore," said Jackson, measuring out $10 worth of gas at $4.539 a gallon. "I'm running on fumes half the time."

But at a Valero station on Broadway, Steve Price looked at the gas pump, shrugged and continued pumping at $4.699 a gallon. Price, who works at a printing company, said the higher prices haven't put a meaningful dent in his wallet.

"Doesn't matter to me – I've got to buy gas," he said as he filled up his Nissan Altima. "Get gas when you need gas – that's all there is to it."

Economists said there's no question the higher prices can squeeze the purses of some Californians – particularly those with lower incomes or longer commutes. But the overall California economy, which has been generating jobs in the past year faster than the U.S. average, shouldn't feel much of a pinch.

Economist James Hamilton of the University of California, San Diego, said the latest run-up is a far cry from, say, the huge price jumps that took place after Hurricane Katrina damaged numerous oil drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

Katrina's impact was nationwide, and it wasn't clear how long it would take to fix everything.

"This will be much shorter-lived," said Hamilton, who studies the economic impact of energy prices.

So why all the anxiety?

"It has that emotional impact, it's very visible," said Dennis Meyers, principal economist at the state Department of Finance. "It sort of gets that outsized attention."

In normal times, fuel takes up 5.4 percent of the average household budget, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's about the same as Americans spend on restaurants and slightly less than what they spend on recreation.

"In the grand scheme of the macro-economy, it's a relatively small share," Meyers said.

What's uncertain is how the recent run-up in prices will influence car-buying habits. Hamilton said Californians will likely continue what they've been doing for some time – looking for cars that provide good fuel economy.

"There is a long-term trend toward driving more fuel-efficient vehicles, and that's not going to change," Hamilton said.

Trying to capitalize on the price spikes in California, Honda announced it would give $3,000 worth of fuel to purchasers of its natural gas-powered 2012 Civics. The carmaker said natural gas is about $2 a gallon cheaper than conventional fuel.

So far there hasn't been a land rush at Mel Rapton Honda in Sacramento.

"It's probably a little early for that," said the dealer's president and general manager, Katina Rapton. "If prices stay this high for a prolonged period, that could change."

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