WASHINGTON — U.S. import prices fell by 0.5% in April, led by another sharp drop in fuel prices and a 0.2% decline in the nonfuel categories, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday.
Fuel prices fell 1.7%, with petroleum import prices down 1.9%, but natural gas prices up 6.1%.
Excluding both food and fuels, import prices fell 0.2% in April, the same as the drop in March.
The decline in non-fuel import prices reflected lower import prices for every category except a 0.3% rise in consumer goods. Food prices fell 0.5%, non-fuel industrial goods prices fell 0.7%, capital goods prices fell 0.2%, and automotive vehicles and parts prices fell 0.3%.
Import prices fell across all the major trading partners, with price from China down 0.1%, from the EU down 0.1%, from Canada down 0.6%, and from Japan down 0.6%, the largest monthly drop from that country since September 2008.
Total import prices were down 2.6% over the last 12 months, a larger decline than the 2.2% year/year drop reported in March. Non-fuel import prices were down 0.7%, the largest 12-month decline since November 2009 and an indication of the extent of import price deflation outside of energy goods.
Total export prices fell 0.7% in April, while agricultural export prices fell 2.2% and export prices excluding agriculture were down 0.5%. As with imports, the declines were widespread across the nonagricultural components.
Market News International is a real-time global news service for fixed-income and foreign exchange market professionals. See
