February 15, 2002 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Import prices up in January

The U.S. Import Price Index increased 0.4 percent in January 2002. The upturn, the first since May of last year, was led by a turnaround in prices for petroleum.

[Chart data—TXT]

The 0.4-percent increase in prices for imported goods in January followed a year-long downward trend recorded in 2001. Import prices had dropped 4.6 percent in the last three months of 2001 and 9.0 percent for all of 2001. 

The upturn in January 2002 for import prices was largely attributable to rising prices for petroleum products, which increased 6.0 percent. Petroleum prices had decreased 30.6 percent over the previous three months. The index for nonpetroleum import prices also rose in January, edging up a modest 0.1 percent. This uptick followed 11 consecutive monthly declines in this component.

The small rise in nonpetroleum import prices in January was largely attributable to higher import prices for foods, feeds, and beverages—particularly vegetables. Import prices for foods, feeds, and beverages rose 1.4 percent in January. Over the past 12 months, however, this index decreased 3.2 percent.

These data are a product of the BLS International Price program. Note: all import and export price indexes have been reweighted to 2000 trade weights and rebased from 1995=100 to 2000=100. The rebasing impacted the level of the indexes prior to January 2002. Learn more in "U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes - January 2002," news release USDL 02-86. Note: import and export price data are subject to revision in each of the three months after original publication.