Import Prices Continue to Rise

By Nate Griffin – November 17th, 2021

Monthly import prices continue to rise at an accelerated rate compared to 2020. Overall, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' November release of their U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes Summary, prices have risen by over 10 percent since October of 2020. To contrast, import prices had actually fallen from October 2019 to October 2021.

Much of this increase is driven by fuel prices, when excluding petroleum products, year over year growth for 2021 was only 5.5 percent.

Manufactured products showed slower growth when excluding metal products.

Manufactured metal product prices rose by 28.4 percent. Agricultural products rose by 9.6 percent and petroleum and coal products rose by 67.7 percent.

Rising import prices are a significant contributor to the elevated levels of inflation that the US and global economy has been experiencing.