Soaring petrol costs pushed US import prices up sharply in August, government data showed today, but other import prices remained very subdued in good news for the Federal Reserve as it monitors inflation.
Economists are also scrutinising data for evidence of how Hurricane Katrina has hurt US growth. But the Labour Department said that the August survey was conducted before the storm struck and therefore was not affected.
The Labour Department said US import prices rose by 1.3% last month, versus a Wall Street forecast for a 1.2% gain. July's import price numbers were revised down to show a 0.8% gain from 1.1% previously reported. Export prices fell 0.1%, compared with forecasts for a 0.2% increase and a 0.1% rise in July.
The data serves as one of the early warning indicators of inflation and will worry the Federal Reserve if it thinks these cost pressures will subsequently show up in consumer prices.
But excluding petrol, import prices were flat compared with a 0.2% fall in July and have shown no increase since rising 0.4% in April, the Labour Department said.
Over the last 12 months, import prices have risen 7.6%, reflecting a 42.5% rise in the cost of petrol, which has challenged consumer spending power and raised concern at the US central bank about inflation. Stripping out petrol, import prices are up just 1.8% over the last 12 months.
The Fed is monitoring the pass-though of energy prices into core measures of inflation and has said that while there has been some spill-over, long-term inflation expectations remain well-contained so far. The cost of imported food and beverages fell 0.1% in August while the cost of non-petroleum industrial supplies was up just 0.2%.
Car import prices were unchanged for the second straight month. Prices for capital goods also held steady, while the price of consumer goods, excluding cars, declined by 0.2%.
Many of these goods are imported from Asia, particularly China, and economists said that the fact the dollar's value has been kept artificially steady against these currencies by central bank intervention has helped hold prices down.
