The price rocketed / el precio se disparó.
Is it possible to make a literal translation of this? Or is there a better expression in Spanish?
The price shot up, The price went through the roof.
3 Answers
You got it right, Mortimer, the most idiomatic phrase would be:
se disparó
I'm sorry I don't have the answer for you Mortimerfran. But your post reminded me of something.
This past summer, I was asked to help translate over a dozen biographies and some other things for a trip we were taking to the Dominican Republic. I had a Dominican friend in the states come over to help me. While we were working on this project, I was amazed at how many of the phrases were idiomatic. So back then I remember thinking a section for idioms would be so great and this post is just reminding me of that. I know when Paralee was asking for suggestions for the final Learn Spanish video, that a lesson on"idioms" was one of the choices, but it did not make the final cut. 
Maybe this should be suggested. 
In turn, we could also help Spanish speaking people to learn idioms common to English speaking people.
one lovely spanish idiom is "subió como la espuma", lit. "rose like the foam". A beautiful image, and flexible - it can be anything to do with rapid growth or rise, about just about anything - just substitute "subir" with "crecer", "ascender", whatever you want.
