Import and export prices increase from April 2010 to April 2011

Over the year, overall import prices advanced 11.1 percent in April 2011—the largest year-over-year increase since an 11.2-percent gain between April 2009 and April 2010. Export prices rose 9.6 percent over the past year, matching the 12-month advance in March—the largest year-over-year increase since export prices jumped 10.2 percent in July 2008.

[Chart data]

From April 2010 to April 2011, prices for import fuel rose 34.8 percent, driven by a 36.8-percent advance in petroleum prices. In contrast, natural gas prices ticked down 0.1 percent over that same period.

Prices for nonfuel imports recorded a second consecutive 12-month increase of 4.3 percent in April 2011—the largest year-over-year advances since a 4.8-percent rise for the year ended in October 2008.

Prices for agricultural exports increased 35.3 percent from April 2010 to April 2011—the largest 12-month gain since the July 2007-08 period. The increase was led by a 96.3-percent advance in corn prices and a 142.5-percent jump in cotton prices.

Nonagricultural export prices increased 6.9 percent for the year ended in April 2011—the third consecutive month where the 12-month advance was greater than 6 percent.

These data are from the BLS International Price program. Import and export price data are subject to revision. For more information, see "U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes — April 2011" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-11-0677.