January 2019 U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes — 2019-02-15

U.S. import prices fell 0.5 percent in January, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today, following a 1.0-percent drop in December and a 1.7-percent decrease in November. Both fuel and nonfuel prices contributed to the January decline. Prices for U.S. exports decreased 0.6 percent for the second consecutive month in January. Prices for U.S. imports declined 0.5 percent in January and 3.1 percent over the last 3 months. The 3-month drop was the largest decrease since the index fell 3.1 percent from July 2015 to October 2015. Import prices decreased 1.7 percent over the past 12 months, the largest over-the-year decline since the index fell 2.2 percent in August 2016. (See table 1.) Fuel Imports: Import fuel prices decreased 3.2 percent in January and 22.5 percent over the past 3 months, the largest drop over a 3-month period since the index fell 29.2 percent for the 3 months ended in February 2016.