BLS International Price Program · Import price indexes by end use, not seasonally adjusted
How have the prices of what the United States imports changed?
The month ended : of the 8 lines, the change over a year was largest for Fuels and lubricants, up 34.5%, and smallest for Automotive vehicles, parts and engines, up 1.1%.
Import prices, foods and materials, each month
- Foods, feeds and beverages228.9175.3 to 236.1
- Industrial supplies and materials290.4143.2 to 305.3
- Fuels and lubricants337.897.8 to 431.3
- Unfinished metals462.1195.7 to 462.8
Import prices, finished goods, each month
- Capital goods102.987.4 to 102.9
- Automotive vehicles, parts and engines121.6109.6 to 122.2
- Consumer goods excluding automotive113.1106.4 to 113.1
Each row is one line of the page over the last ten years, one month to a point, on a scale shared by the rows of the tab, with its newest value and its range printed beside it and a dashed line at zero. A gap is a month with no value. Pointing at the chart shows the month and the value.
Observed .
Right now
Over a year to September 2026, of the 8 lines on this page the change was largest for Fuels and lubricants, up 34.5%, and smallest for Automotive vehicles, parts and engines, up 1.1%.
Of these lines, 8 rose, 0 fell and 0 did not change over the year (ours, from the published values).
By lineOver a year, ours
Import prices, change over a year, by line
- All imports
- Foods and materials
- Finished goods
Each bar is the change in one line over a year, the largest first, with its rank at the left and its newest value under the figure. A line with its own page links it from its name. A change below zero runs to the left of the zero line. The colour says which section of the page a line is in.
Observed .
Import prices, change over a year in each month
| Line | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All imports | – | −0.1 | 0.0 | +0.2 | +1.0 | +2.3 | +4.5 | +6.9 | +6.7 | +6.0 | +6.7 | +8.1 |
| Foods, feeds and beverages | +0.2 | −2.0 | −4.4 | −4.3 | −4.1 | −2.9 | −2.4 | −2.0 | −0.8 | 0.0 | +2.3 | +2.9 |
| Industrial supplies and materials | – | +0.2 | +0.6 | +0.4 | +1.3 | +5.4 | +14.1 | +22.1 | +20.9 | +15.7 | +16.8 | +20.4 |
| Fuels and lubricants | – | −6.7 | −8.8 | −12.5 | −11.8 | +0.6 | +22.8 | +44.9 | +38.7 | +25.8 | +26.4 | +34.5 |
| Unfinished metals | +12.0 | +15.6 | +22.6 | +28.6 | +32.2 | +32.3 | +29.5 | +32.0 | +30.9 | +27.5 | +29.0 | +25.3 |
| Capital goods | – | +1.4 | +1.8 | +2.4 | +3.7 | +4.2 | +4.5 | +5.5 | +5.8 | +6.9 | +7.4 | +8.4 |
| Automotive vehicles, parts and engines | – | −1.6 | −1.6 | −1.2 | −1.1 | −1.1 | −1.0 | −0.5 | −0.4 | +0.3 | +0.8 | +1.1 |
| Consumer goods excluding automotive | – | −0.5 | −0.5 | −0.1 | +0.3 | +0.9 | +1.9 | +2.6 | +2.5 | +2.1 | +2.3 | +2.7 |
Each chip is one month's change from the same month a year earlier. The mark in its middle is zero: a fill to the right of it is a rise and a fill to the left a fall. A longer, brighter fill is a larger change, in five steps up to 29.0 and over. Every chip prints its figure and sign. A dash is a month with no figure.
Observed .
Understanding import prices
Where it stands today
The largest change over a year was Fuels and lubricants, up 34.5%, in September 2026.
What do the lines of this page measure?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) measures the change in the prices of goods that the United States imports, with its International Price Program, and publishes the import price indexes each month, about two weeks after the month ends. BLS builds them from the prices that a sample of US importers report, and groups goods by their end use: foods, feeds and beverages; industrial supplies and materials; capital goods; automotive vehicles, parts and engines; and consumer goods.
Read more
Fuels and lubricants and unfinished metals are parts of industrial supplies and materials. They have pages of their own, as do all imports and foods, feeds and beverages.
What 500metrics adds: the change over a year of every index, ranked across the page; the last ten years of every index as rows of small charts; and a table of the change over a year in each of the last twelve months. Lines with a link have a page of their own with the history since the series begins.
The numbers behind the chart
What is the latest value of each line?8 lines, in the sections of the page
| Line | Section | Month | Value | Change over a year | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All imports | All imports | 152.2 | +8.1% | 5 | |
| Foods, feeds and beverages | Foods and materials | 228.9 | +2.9% | 6 | |
| Industrial supplies and materials | Foods and materials | 290.4 | +20.4% | 3 | |
| Fuels and lubricants | Foods and materials | 337.8 | +34.5% | 1 | |
| Unfinished metals | Foods and materials | 462.1 | +25.3% | 2 | |
| Capital goods | Finished goods | 102.9 | +8.4% | 4 | |
| Automotive vehicles, parts and engines | Finished goods | 121.6 | +1.1% | 8 | |
| Consumer goods excluding automotive | Finished goods | 113.1 | +2.7% | 7 |
The table scrolls sideways; the first column stays in place.
What do these figures leave out, and how are they cited?Limits, dates and how to cite
What this number cannot tell you
- Some lines are parts of others: every line is a part of all imports, and fuels and lubricants and unfinished metals are parts of industrial supplies and materials.
- The fuels and lubricants index follows the prices that importers report for the fuels and lubricants they import. It is not a spot or futures price of oil or gas on any market.
- The index is not adjusted for the season. A month-to-month change can include the usual swings of the calendar year.
- The index has no unit. BLS sets a base period for each series and gives it the value 100 there, so the values of two series cannot be compared with each other; only their changes can.
- BLS revises an index in the months after it first publishes it, and this page shows the newest values. A month with no value shows as a gap in the chart.
- The index is shown to one decimal. The changes and the ranks are ours, worked out from the values BLS publishes; a change is in percent.
Observed . Checked .
How to cite this
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Import/Export Price Indexes, Import price indexes by end use, not seasonally adjusted, through September 2026. Compiled by 500metrics, "How have the prices of what the United States imports changed?", https://500metrics.com/import-prices.
Can the data be downloaded?import-prices.csv
Download the last ten years of every line as CSV: 962 rows, to , 58,917 bytes.
Our text and compilation: CC BY 4.0.
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