Technical Note
TECHNICAL NOTE
Import and Export Goods and Services Price Indexes - All indexes use a modified Laspeyres
formula and are not seasonally adjusted. Price indexes are reweighted annually, with a 2-year lag in the
weights. Published series use a base year of 2000=100 where possible. More detailed index series and
additional information may be obtained at www.bls.gov/mxp or by calling (202) 691-7101.
Merchandise Goods Classification Systems - The merchandise price indexes are published using three
classification systems. Items are classified by end use according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis
Classification System, by industry according to the North American Industry Classification System
(NAICS), and by product category according to the Harmonized System (HS). While classification by
end use and product category are self-explanatory, some notes are in order for classifying items by
industry. In the NAICS imports and exports tables, items are classified by output industry, not input
industry. As an example, NAICS import index 326 (plastics and rubber products manufacturing)
includes outputs such as manufactured plastic rather than inputs such as petroleum. The NAICS
classification structure also matches the classification system used by the Producer Price Index (PPI) to
produce the NAICS primary products indexes.
Import Price Goods Indexes - Items are classified by the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United
States Annotated (TSUSA). Import prices are based on U.S. dollar prices paid by the U.S. importer. The
prices are generally either "free on board" (f.o.b.) foreign port or "cost, insurance, and freight" (c.i.f.)
U.S. port transaction prices, depending on the practices of the individual industry. The index for crude
petroleum is calculated from data collected by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Export Price Goods Indexes - Items are classified by the Harmonized Schedule B classification system
of the U.S. Bureau of the Census. The prices used are generally either "free alongside ship" (f.a.s.)
factory or "free on board" (f.o.b.) transaction prices, depending on the practices of the individual
industry. Prices used in the grain index, excluding rice, are obtained from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture.
Services Price Indexes - Indexes for import and export air passenger fares calculate changes in the
average revenue received per passenger by foreign carriers from U.S. residents and by U.S. carriers from
foreign residents, respectively. Data are obtained from an airline consulting service and report on tickets
sold by travel agencies, travel websites, and directly by the airlines. Taxes and fees are included in both
the import and export air passenger fares indexes. Import air passenger fares data have used the airline
consulting service source since September 2008. Before April 2018, the export air passenger fares data
were collected directly by BLS from U.S. airlines. The air freight indexes are calculated from data
collected directly from airlines. These data exclude mail and passenger baggage. The scope of the
service being priced is the movement of freight from airport to airport only, and does not include any
ground transportation or port service. The air freight indexes are presented using two definitions:
balance of payments (which represents transactions between U.S. and foreign residents) and
international (which represents transactions inbound to and outbound from the United States.) Fact
sheets specifying detailed information for each services industry are available at www.bls.gov/mxp
under "MXP Publications."
Import Price Indexes by Locality of Origin - Prices used in these indexes are a subset of the data
collected for the import price indexes. The indexes are specific to a country, region, or grouping and,
beginning with January 2002, are based on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)
covering goods-producing industries. Nonmanufactured goods are defined as NAICS 11 and 21, and
manufactured goods are defined as NAICS 31-33.
Export Price Indexes by Locality of Destination - Prices used in these indexes are a subset of the data
collected for the export price indexes. The indexes are specific to a country, region, or grouping and are
based on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) covering goods-producing
industries. Nonmanufactured goods are defined as NAICS 11 and 21, and manufactured goods are
defined as NAICS 31-33.
Terms of Trade Indexes - Terms of trade indexes measure the relative price of exports in terms of
import prices for a specific country, region, or grouping. The indexes are calculated as one country,
region, or grouping's all-export goods price index divided by the corresponding all-import goods price
index on a scale of 100.
Relative Importance - A relative importance is a specific index's price-updated value share (expressed
as a percentage) of overall imports or exports at a specific point in time. Relative importance values are
affected by the trade weights at the point indexes are reweighted and index changes relative to other
indexes since the reweight point. If an index is rising in value relative to other indexes over time, the
relative importance will increase as well.
Revision Policy - To reflect the availability of late reports and corrections by respondents, monthly data
may be revised in each of the 3 months after original publication. After 3 months, no further data
revisions take place. For example, data first published in the January release will be subject to revision
in the releases for February, March, and April.
Rounding Policy - Index values are rounded to the tenth decimal place after being calculated. All
percent changes are then derived from the rounded index values and subsequently rounded to the tenth
decimal place.
Uses of the Data - The primary use of the indexes is to deflate trade statistics, notably the foreign trade
sector of the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA) constructed by the Department of
Commerce. Other published indexes are useful for general market analysis. For trade in international
services, balance of payments indexes are used for deflating NIPA, while international indexes are more
appropriate for market analysis.
Email Subscription - The U.S. import and export price indexes news release is available through an
email subscription service at www.bls.gov/bls/list.htm.
Additional Information - More detailed data are available on the Import/Export Price Indexes home
page at www.bls.gov/mxp. For import and export price indexes data requests, send an email to
mxpinfo@bls.gov.
Information from this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request.
Voice phone: (202)-691-5200; Federal Relay Service: 1-(800)-877-8339.
Last Modified Date: November 15, 2019