WASHINGTON – Import prices rose 0.2% in May, the eighth consecutive monthly increase, the Labor Department reported Friday.
That follows a revised 2.1% increase in April.
Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected a 0.7% decrease in May import prices.
The May increase was not due to rising petroleum prices, which fell 0.4%, their first decline since September 2010. Petroleum prices were up 6.6% in April. The May statistics captured some of the recent rapid fall in oil prices.
Nor were food prices, which fell 0.5%, pushing up import prices in May, as the worldwide commodity boom began to stabilize. Food prices rose a revised 2% in April.
Automobile prices were up 0.5%, based on continuing demand but supply shortages from Japan.
Prices excluding petroleum rose 0.4% after a 0.6% increase the month before.
Export prices were up 0.2% in May, after a revised 0.9% increase in April.
There were some import price increases in other categories such as natural gas, capital goods and consumer goods.
But the significantly lower May number appears to be mostly from the decline of the two major factors, petroleum and food which had been pushing up import prices in recent months.
