U.S. Import And Export Price Indexes — 2005-10-13

U.S. import prices increased 2.3 percent in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today, the largest monthly advance since October 1990. Higher prices for both petroleum and nonpetroleum imports contributed to the increase. Export prices rose 0.9 percent in September following a modest 0.1 percent decline in August. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita had virtually no impact on data collection efforts or survey response rates and no changes in estimation procedures were necessary. Percent changes in import and export price indexes by End Use category -not seasonally adjusted- Month Non- Agri- Nonagri- All Petroleum petroleum All cultural cultural Imports Imports Imports Exports Exports Exports 2005 January 0.6 2.2 0.3 0.8 0.6 0.8 February 0.9 5.1 0.1 0.1 -0.5 0.1 March 2.2 13.4 0.3 0.7 3.8 0.4 April 0.9 3.6 0.4 0.5 0.3 0.6 May -0.8 -4.4 -0.2 -0.2 2.0 -0.5 June 1.2 8.9 r -0.2 0.0 r 1.0 r -0.1 r July 1.2 r