Import and export prices in June 2011

Export prices continued to rise in June, ticking up 0.1 percent after a 0.2-percent increase the previous month. The recent increases were the smallest since the index declined 0.2 percent in July 2010.

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Import prices decreased 0.5 percent in June, following a 0.1 percent uptick the previous month. The June drop was the first monthly decline since the index fell 1.2 percent in June 2010. Prior to May, import prices rose at least one percent in each of the previous seven months.

Import fuel prices fell for the second consecutive month in June, decreasing 1.6 percent following a 0.8-percent drop in May. The decrease in fuel prices accounted for most of the June decline in overall import prices. Despite the declines over the past two months, fuel prices rose 46.9 percent over the past year.

The price index for imports excluding fuel edged down 0.1 percent in June, the first monthly decline for the index since a 0.3-percent decrease in July 2010.

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Agricultural prices resumed an upward trend in June, rising 0.7 percent following a 2.0-percent downturn in May. Contributing to the June increase in agricultural prices, were higher prices for corn, soybeans, and wheat, up 3.2 percent, 2.3 percent, and 4.4 percent, respectively.

The price index for nonagricultural goods was unchanged in June after rising 0.5 percent in May. In June, higher finished goods prices offset a 0.7-percent decline in nonagricultural industrial supplies and materials prices.

These data are from the BLS International Price program. Import and export price data are subject to revision. For more information, see "U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes — June 2011" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-11-1033.