U.S. January import prices surge 1.7%, set record for 12-month price hike
Friday, February 15, 2008 8:40:00 AM
WASHINGTON (Thomson Financial) - U.S. import prices surged in January more than three times as fast as expected, driven once again by rising oil and food prices, the Labor Department said Friday.
Import prices jumped 1.7% in January, the largest increase since November's 3.1% gain. Economists were predicting a much smaller rise of 0.5%.
Import prices in the year ending January 2008 are up 13.7%, which is the largest 12-month increase since the government started measuring those statistics in 1982.
January's increase was led by a 5.5% rise in the price of petroleum imports. Petroleum imports are up 66.9% over the last 12 months, the largest year-over-year increase since October 2004.
Excluding petroleum, import prices were up only 0.6% in January. But over the last 12 months, import prices excluding petroleum are up 3.65, the largest since the year ending October 2005.
The worldwide increase in food prices showed up in a 3.1% rise for U.S. imports in January, the largest gain since March 2005. That brought the year-over-year increase to 10.9%, the largest annual gain since the year ending April 1995.
The price of imported natural gas rose by 1.6% in January, and natural gas prices have increased 12.3% over the last 12 months.
Goods from major supplier countries to the U.S. economy rose sharply in January. The price of goods from Mexico rose 2.8% in the month and are up 19.9% over the past 12 months.
The price of imports from China rose 0.8% and are up 3.3% over the past year.
The price of imports from Canada rose only 0.1% in the month, but year-over-year, imports from Canada are up 11.3%.
U.S. export prices in January increased 1.2%, the largest increase since January of 1989. Agricultural export prices once again drove the rise, up 5.0%, the largest increase since September 2003.
Excluding agriculture, US export prices were up 0.8%.