Import prices paid by U.S. businesses rose 1.9% in May, the Labor Department reported Tuesday, a slower pace than April’s 2% monthly gain but well above the 1.1% increase that analysts polled by The Wall Street Journal had expected. The data exclude duties such as tariffs and transportation costs.
Fuel import prices climbed 12.5% in May, down from an 18.6% jump in April, as global energy markets continued to absorb the effects of the Iran conflict. Nonpetroleum import prices rose 0.8% last month, accelerating from April’s 0.6% increase.
Over the past 12 months, import prices rose 6.7%, the sharpest annual increase since August 2022 and a significant acceleration from the near-flat import-price inflation that prevailed through much of last year.
The elevated import-price readings extend a pattern of persistent cost pressure on U.S. businesses and consumers that has been building since early spring. MSI previously reported that consumer inflation hit 4.2% in May — a three-year high — and that lower-income households face an even higher effective inflation rate because they spend a larger share of their budgets on fuel and food, where price increases have been most acute. That earlier report documented how the Iran war’s effect on gasoline prices was the primary driver of the broadest inflation reading in three years.
Tuesday’s import-price report adds to the picture of an economy in which goods arriving at U.S. ports are becoming more expensive across the board. Fuel costs remain the dominant factor, but the broad-based increase in nonpetroleum import prices indicates that price pressures are spreading beyond energy.