November 2021 U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes — 2021-12-15

Prices for U.S. imports rose 0.7 percent in November following a 1.5-percent increase in October, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. In November, both higher fuel and nonfuel prices contributed to the advance. U.S. export prices rose 1.0 percent in November, after increasing 1.6 percent in October and 0.3 percent in September. U.S. import prices advanced 0.7 percent in November, continuing the upward trend recorded throughout 2021 with the exception of a 0.2-percent drop in August. The price index for U.S. imports rose 11.7 percent over the past 12 months, the largest over-the-year increase since the index advanced 12.7 percent for the year ended September 2011. (See table 1.) Fuel Imports: Prices for import fuel rose 2.0 percent in November following an 11.1-percent increase the previous month. The November advance was driven by higher natural gas prices. Import fuel prices increased 86.1 percent from November 2020 to November 2021.