April 2023 U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes — 2023-05-12

Prices for U.S. imports increased 0.4 percent in April following a 0.8-percent decline in March, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Higher fuel prices drove the advance in April. The price index for U.S. exports rose 0.2 percent in April, after declining 0.6 percent the previous month. U.S. import prices advanced 0.4 percent in April, the first monthly increase since December 2022. Despite the April rise, the price index for U.S. imports declined over the past year, falling 4.8 percent on a 12-month basis for the second consecutive month. Those were the largest over-the-year drops since the index decreased 6.3 percent in May 2020. (See table 1.) Fuel Imports: Prices for import fuel rose 4.5 percent in April following a 3.9-percent drop in March and a 5.6-percent decline in February. The April advance was the first monthly increase since June 2022. Despite the monthly rise, import fuel prices fell 25.9 percent over the past year.