May 14, 2009
(The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Import prices up again in April 2009
Import prices increased 1.6 percent in April after rising 0.2 percent in March.
[Chart data—TXT]
The April advance was led by a 15.4-percent rise in petroleum prices, which increased for the third consecutive month after declining in each of the previous six months. In contrast, nonpetroleum prices decreased for the ninth consecutive month, falling 0.4 percent in April.
For the year ended in April, petroleum prices fell 49.8 percent and prices for nonpetroleum imports declined 5.6 percent. Overall import prices declined 16.3 percent over the past year, the largest annual decline since the index was first published in September 1982.
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 – April 2009" (PDF) (HTML), news release USDL 09-0509.
Of interest
Spotlight on Statistics: National Hispanic Heritage Month
In this Spotlight, we take a look at the Hispanic labor force—including labor force participation, employment and unemployment, educational attainment, geographic location, country of birth, earnings, consumer expenditures, time use, workplace injuries, and employment projections.
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