March 2019 U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes — 2019-04-12

U.S. import prices increased 0.6 percent in March, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today, following a 1.0-percent rise in February. Both the March and February advances were driven by higher fuel prices. Prices for U.S. exports rose 0.7 percent for the second consecutive month in March. Both agricultural and nonagricultural prices contributed to the increase. Prices for U.S. imports advanced 0.6 percent in March and 1.7 percent in the first 3 months of 2019. The increase for the 3 months ended in March was the largest 3-month rise since the index advanced 1.9 percent between October 2017 and January 2018. The import price index recorded no change over the past 12 months. (See table 1.) Fuel Imports: Import fuel prices rose 6.4 percent in March after increasing 9.7 percent in February and 4.4 percent in January.