February 2020 U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes — 2020-03-13

U.S. import prices declined 0.5 percent in February, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today, after ticking up 0.1 percent in January. In February, falling import fuel prices more than offset higher prices for nonfuel imports. Prices for U.S. exports decreased 1.1 percent in February, after advancing 0.6 percent the previous month. Import prices declined 0.5 percent in February, after rising 0.1 percent in January and 0.2 percent in December. The decline in February was the largest decrease since the index fell 0.6 percent in August. Prices for U.S. imports decreased 1.2 percent from February 2019 to February 2020, as declining prices for both nonfuel and fuel imports contributed to the movement. (See table 1.) Fuel Imports: Import fuel prices decreased 7.7 percent in February, the largest monthly decline since the index dropped 7.8 percent in June 2019.