Department of Labor Logo United States Department of Labor
Dot gov

The .gov means it's official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

U.S. import prices down 4.8 percent over year ended April 2023

May 25, 2023

Prices for commodity imports into the United States declined over the year ended April 2023, decreasing 4.8 percent over these 12 months, which was the largest over-the-year decrease since May 2020.

12-month percent changes in Import Price Indexes, selected categories, April, 2018–23
12 months ended All commodities Foods, feeds, & beverages Industrial supplies & material Capital goods Automotive vehicles, parts & engines Consumer goods, excluding automotive

Apr 2018

3.5 2.1 13.2 1.1 0.0 0.4

Apr 2019

-0.2 1.0 1.2 -1.3 -0.7 -0.5

Apr 2020

-6.8 -4.3 -26.5 -0.6 0.9 -0.5

Apr 2021

10.9 8.0 52.4 1.3 0.9 0.8

Apr 2022

12.5 11.9 36.8 3.9 3.1 3.1

Apr 2023

-4.8 0.2 -17.0 1.1 1.9 -0.2

Note: Data may be revised in each of the 3 months after initially published.

Prices for imported industrial supplies and materials decreased 17.0 percent over the past 12 months, after increasing 36.8 percent over the year ended April 2022 and 52.4 percent over the year ended April 2021. Within this category, import petroleum prices declined 25.7 percent and import natural gas prices decreased 45.7 percent from April 2022 to April 2023. The decrease in natural gas prices was the largest 12-month decrease since April 2015.

Prices for automotive vehicles, parts, and engines imports increased 1.9 percent over the past year after increasing 3.1 percent over the year ended April 2022.

These data are from the International Price program and are not seasonally adjusted. To learn more, see "U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes — April 2023." Also see more charts on U.S. import and export prices.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, U.S. import prices down 4.8 percent over year ended April 2023 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2023/u-s-import-prices-down-4-8-percent-over-year-ended-april-2023.htm (visited October 31, 2024).

OF INTEREST
spotlight
Recent editions of Spotlight on Statistics


triangle