The new data on February Import & Export prices has been released by the Labor Department this Wednesday and we are seeing some inflationary pressure. Higher petroleum costs pushed up import prices by 0.4%. The only good news is that Dow Jones was looking for a gain of 0.7% and Bloomberg was calling for a gain of 0.6%. Petroleum import prices were up 1.8% in February after only a 0.3% gain the prior month. The good news is that all of the gains are based upon petroleum because the non-petroleum figures showed a drop coming in at -0.2%. On an annual basis rather than monthly basis, import prices were up 5.5%.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.