U.S. import prices declined 0.2 percent in July, following increases in May and June. The July decrease in import prices was driven by falling fuel prices. U.S. export prices were unchanged in July, after decreasing 0.4 percent in June. In July, declining prices for agricultural exports were offset by increasing prices for nonagricultural exports.
The 0.2-percent decline in import prices in July represents the first monthly decline for the index since a 0.6-percent drop in April. Import prices ticked up 0.1 percent in June and rose 0.3 percent in May. The price index for overall imports advanced 0.8 percent over the past 12 months, a similar movement to the 0.9-percent increase from July 2012 to July 2013. Both higher fuel and nonfuel prices contributed to the most recent 12-month increase, in contrast to the increase for the year ended in July 2013, which was driven solely by higher fuel prices.
Export prices, which were unchanged in July, fell 1.3 percent over the past 4 months after increasing 1.7 percent over February and March. Overall, the price index for U.S. exports rose 0.4 percent over the past 12 months. Rising nonagricultural prices between July 2013 and July 2014 more than offset a drop in agricultural prices.
These data are from the International Price program. Import and export price data are subject to revision. To learn more, see “U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes — July 2014” (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-14-1499.
United States Department of Labor
