Import prices turn down in July 2009

The U.S. import price index fell 0.7 percent in July. Decreases for both petroleum prices and nonpetroleum prices contributed to the July drop for overall prices, which followed four consecutive monthly increases.

[Chart data—TXT]

A downturn in petroleum prices, which fell 2.8 percent in July, was the primary factor for the turnaround in overall import prices. Prices for import petroleum rose 66.6 percent over the previous five months, which led overall imports up 6.0 percent over that period. Despite the jump between February and June, petroleum prices fell 49.9 percent over the past year.

Overall import prices posted the largest annual decline since the index was first published in 1982, falling 19.3 percent for the year ended in July.

Nonpetroleum import prices declined 0.2 percent in July, resuming a downward trend over the past year after advancing the past two months. Nonpetroleum prices fell 7.3 percent over the past 12 months, the largest annual decrease since the index was first published in 1985.

These data are from the BLS International Price program. Import price data are subject to revision. Learn more in "U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes -- July 2009" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL 09-0936.