May 11, 2001 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Third decline in a row for import prices

The U.S. Import Price Index fell 0.5 percent in April. The monthly decrease was the third in a row and was attributable to falling prices for both petroleum and nonpetroleum imports. The indexes for both petroleum and nonpetroleum imports decreased by 0.5 percent in April.

Over-the-month percent change in price index for imports, April 2000-April 2001 (not seasonally adjusted)
[Chart data—TXT]

For the year ended in April, the price index for overall imports declined 0.7 percent. Over the same time period, imported petroleum prices decreased 1.6 percent and prices for nonpetroleum imports fell 0.6 percent.

These data are a product of the BLS International Price program. Learn more in "U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes - April 2001," news release USDL 01-133. Note: import price data are subject to revision in each of the three months after original publication.

Happy 10th Birthday, TED!

The very first issue of The Editor's Desk (TED) was posted on September 28, 1998. TED was the first online-only publication of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For 10 years, BLS has been committed to posting a new TED article each business day, for a total of over 2,400 articles so far.

Find out more about the story of TED