Summary
Earlier today, the Labor Department reported that import prices rose a sizable 0.9% during January, led by a 4.6% jump in petroleum prices.
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According to today's release from the Labor Department, import prices registered a 0.9% increase during January,
which compares with a revised 1.4% decline during December. (The December change originally had been reported as minus 1.3%.)
As of January 2005, the year-over-year increase in import prices was 6.0%, versus a much lower 2.2% 12-month gain as of January 2004.
Based on today's release, the price of petroleum imports rose 4.6% in January, which followed a decline of 11.5% in December (unrevised from last month's report). As of January 2005, petroleum import prices were 26.9% higher than one year earlier. This compared with a year-over-year rise of 5.6% as of January 2004.
January prices for imports excluding the petroleum component rose 0.2%, versus a December increase of 0.4% (reported originally as +0.5%). The January increase resulted in a year-over-year rise in this sector of 3.0%. As of January 2004, import prices, excluding petroleum, were up 1.8% from a year earlier.
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U.S. IMPORT PRICES - % CHANGE
(3-Mo.= Three-month Compound Annual Rate)
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All Imports, Petroleum
All Imports Excl. Petrol. Imports Only
Month/ -------------- --------------- ---------------
Year Mo. 3-Mo. Y/Y Mo. 3-Mo. Y/Y Mo. 3-Mo. Y/Y
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01/05 0.9 -3.4 6.0 0.2 6.1 3.0 4.6 -42.6 26.9
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12/04 -1.4 -0.4 6.7 0.4 4.9 3.7 -11.5 -27.0 30.1
11/04 -0.3 7.5 9.0 0.9 3.6 3.6 -6.0 35.9 54.5
10/04 1.6 15.3 9.9 -0.1 1.2 2.9 11.1 143.7 67.8
09/04 0.5 9.8 8.2 0.1 1.6 2.9 3.3 75.1 53.5
08/04 1.5 6.8 7.1 0.3 1.6 3.1 8.8 46.7 39.9
07/04 0.4 6.9 5.6 0.0 1.2 2.5 2.3 50.0 30.9
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01/04 1.5 11.7 2.2 0.8 5.5 1.8 7.3 75.4 5.6
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