Your Economy (No Politics)

[Bullwinkle]

Import prices fall in February, as expected
Wed Mar 15, 8:31 AM ET


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. import prices fell 0.5 percent in February, as expected, as the cost of imported petroleum, food and industrial supplies all declined, the Labor Department said on Wednesday.

The drop in import prices was the first since November and followed an upwardly revised 1.4 percent rise in prices in January.

In the 12 months through February, import prices were up 7.4 percent, a slowdown from the 8.9 percent rise in the 12-months period ended in January, the report showed.

Much of that annual rise can be attributed to the surging price of oil over the past year.

Petroleum import prices fell 0.7 percent in February, the fourth decrease in the past five months, after a 6.9 percent surge in January. But the cost of imported petroleum was up 40.8 percent in the 12 months to February.

Non-petroleum import prices fell 0.5 percent, the largest decline since April 2004. Imports prices excluding petroleum were up 1.8 percent in the 12 months through February, down from the 2.4 percent 12-month increase through January.

The slowdown in import price growth may reassure the U.S. Federal Reserve that inflation remains well contained despite volatile energy prices. The Fed has raised rates 14 times since June 2004 in a bid to head off inflation concerns and is expected to increase borrowing costs two more times by mid-year.

Food import prices fell 1.7 percent in February, the first decline in seven months and the largest drop since February 2002. The price of imported industrial supplies fell 1.5 percent.

The declines were slightly offset by a 0.2 percent increase in the price of imported capital goods and a 0.1 percent rise in the cost of imported cars and parts.

Export prices were flat in February after a 0.7 percent rise in January. Wall Street analysts had expected export prices to rise 0.2 percent.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060315/bs_nm/economy_dc_5