July 14, 2008 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Import prices up again in June

Import prices rose 2.6 percent in June 2008. The increase followed a 2.6-percent advance in May and was led by a continuing rise in petroleum prices. Import prices advanced 20.5 percent over the past year, which was the largest year-over-year rise since the index was first published in September 1982.

Over-the-month percent change in price index for imports, June 2007-June 2008 (not seasonally adjusted)
[Chart data—TXT]

Higher petroleum prices continued to be the major contributor to the advance in overall import prices, increasing 7.4 percent in June after rising 8.9 percent, 7.9 percent, and 10.1 percent respectively, in the prior three months.

Petroleum prices rose 78.6 percent for the year ended in June, the largest 12-month advance since the index increased 82.5 percent between February 2002 and February 2003.

These data are from the BLS International Price program. Import price data are subject to revision. Learn more in "U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes -- June 2008," (PDF) (HTML) news release USDL 08-0943.