June 2019 U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes — 2019-07-16

U.S. import prices decreased 0.9 percent in June, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today, after recording no change in May. Falling prices for both fuel and nonfuel imports in June contributed to the overall decrease. Prices for U.S. exports fell 0.7 percent in June following a 0.2-percent decline the previous month. Prices for U.S. imports declined 0.9 percent in June, the first monthly decrease since the index fell 1.4 percent in December 2018. Import prices decreased 2.0 percent over the past 12 months, the largest over- the-year drop since the index fell 2.2 percent from August 2015 to August 2016. (See table 1.) Fuel Imports: Import fuel prices fell 6.5 percent in June following a 2.3-percent advance the previous month. The June downturn was the first monthly decline since the index decreased 13.3 percent in December 2018. Lower petroleum and natural gas prices in June both contributed to the overall fall in fuel prices.