Economy

Import Prices Decline More than Export Prices in May

Import Fuel Prices Decline After Gaining 25.4% Over Previous 4 Months

Logistics and transportation of import export container cargo ship, cargo plane with working crane bridge in shipyard at sunrise, logistic import export and transport industry background. (Photo: ADobeStock)

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported U.S. imports declined 0.3% on lower fuel costs in May, while export prices fell 0.2%.

Indicator	Prior	Prior Revised	Consensus Forecast	Forecast Range	Actual
Import Prices – M/M ∆	0.2%	0.1%	-0.3%	-0.5% to 0.2%	-0.3%
Import Prices – Y/Y ∆	0.2%		-1.3%		-1.5%
Export Prices – M/M ∆	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%	-0.2% to 0.5%	-0.2%
Export Prices – Y/Y ∆	0.3%		0.0%		-0.7%

This follows an increase of 0.1% for imports during the previous month. Exports rose 0.1% in April, 0.8% in March, and 0.6% in February.

Imports

This is the first monthly decline for imports since a 1.4% decline in December. Fuel prices fell 1.0% in May after rising 25.4% over the previous 4 months.

Exports

This is the first monthly decline for export prices since the index fell 0.6% in January. Exports fell 0.7% over the past 12 months, the largest over-the-year decline since the index declined 1.1% in October 2016.

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PPD Business Staff

PPD Business, the economy-reporting arm of People's Pundit Daily, is "making sense of current events." We are a no-holds barred, news reporting pundit of, by, and for the people.