Petroleum import prices fell 55 percent in past 12 months

Petroleum import prices fell 69.1 percent over the past six months and 55.0 percent over the past year, the largest 12-month decline since the index was first published in June 1982.

[Chart data—TXT]

For the sixth consecutive month, petroleum import prices and nonpetroleum import prices decreased, falling 2.4 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively, in January 2009. Prices for overall imports fell 1.1 percent in January.

However, prices for both overall imports and petroleum decreased at a smaller rate in January than in each of the previous five months since prices last rose in July.

Nonpetroleum prices decreased 5.7 percent over the past six months and 0.6 percent over the past year.

Overall, import prices fell 12.5 percent for the year ended in January, the largest 12-month decline since the index was first published in September 1982.

These data are from the BLS International Price program. Import price data are subject to revision. Learn more in "U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes – January 2009" (PDF) (HTML), news release USDL 09-0169.