December 2018 U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes — 2019-01-16

Prices for U.S. imports decreased 1.0 percent in December, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today, after a 1.9-percent fall the previous month. Lower fuel prices drove the decline in December, and nonfuel prices recorded no change. U.S. export prices fell 0.6 percent in December following a 0.8-percent drop in November. U.S. import prices declined 1.0 percent in December, after decreasing 1.9 percent in November and rising 0.5 percent in October. The November drop was the largest monthly decline since the index fell 3.2 percent in January 2015. Prices for imports decreased 0.6 percent in 2018 following a 3.2-percent increase the previous year. The decline in 2018 was the first calendar-year drop since import prices fell 8.3 percent in 2015. (See table 1.) Fuel Imports: Prices for import fuel declined 9.2 percent in December, after a 13.3-percent drop the previous month.