May 15, 2003 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Import prices drop in April

The U.S. Import Price Index decreased 2.7 percent in April. The decline, the first since last November, was driven by a substantial drop in prices for imported fuels.

[Chart data—TXT]

The 2.7-percent decline is the largest one-month drop for the index since monthly publication began in 1989. The decrease was led by a 16.2-percent decline in import petroleum prices, the largest monthly decrease since February 1991. Despite the decline, petroleum prices still were up 15.9 percent over the 12 months ending in April.

Also contributing to the April drop in import prices, the price index for nonpetroleum imports decreased 0.9 percent, the largest one-month decline for nonpetroleum import prices since July 2001. During the past year, however, import prices overall rose 2.3 percent.

Export prices edged down 0.1 percent in April, after having risen in each of the previous three months.

These data are from the BLS International Price program. Import and export price data are subject to revision. Learn more in "U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes - April 2003" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 03-240.