May 10, 2002 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Import prices up again in April

The U.S. Import Price Index increased 1.4 percent in April 2002. The increase—which followed a 1.2 percent rise in March—continued to be led by rising petroleum prices.

[Chart data—TXT]

The rise in overall import prices in April marked the third monthly increase in the past four months for this index. Despite the recent gains, the index was 3.9 percent below its level a year ago. The April increase in import prices was led by a continued rise in petroleum prices, which increased 12.1 percent last month after gaining 14.5 percent in March. For the year ended in April, however, petroleum prices were down 2.2 percent. 

Prices for nonpetroleum imports also increased in April—up 0.4 percent, the largest monthly increase for this index since January 2001. During the year ended in April, however, the nonpetroleum index fell 3.3 percent.

These data are a product of the BLS International Price program. Learn more in "U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes - April 2002," news release USDL 02-262. Note: import price data are subject to revision in each of the three months after original publication.