Washington (Reuters) – Import prices increased unexpectedly in August, drawn by high increases in the costs of equipment and consumption goods, which suggests an acceleration of domestic inflation in the coming months.
Import prices increased 0.3% last month after a 0.2% rebound in July, the work statistics office said on Tuesday.
Economists interviewed by Reuters had provided for import prices, which exclude customs duties, would decrease by 0.1% after an increase of 0.4% in July.
If import prices do not include customs duties, their high level suggests that exporting countries do not reduce their prices to compensate for the impact of cost increase.
Over a year, import prices remained unchanged after dropping for three consecutive months.
Last week, the data also shown an unexpected contraction of production prices in August, in a context of compression of the margins of commercial services, which indicates that American companies have probably absorbed part of the customs duties.
These figures partly explain why customs duties have not stimulated inflation significantly, even if the process is underway since consumer prices increased in August.
(Written by Lucia Mutikani; Diana Mandia, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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