{"id":428894,"date":"2026-03-25T19:40:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T12:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/market-news\/2026\/03\/us-february-import-price-index-1-3-vs-0-5-expected\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:40:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T12:40:17","slug":"us-february-import-price-index-1-3-vs-0-5-expected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/market-news\/us-february-import-price-index-1-3-vs-0-5-expected-428894\/","title":{"rendered":"US February import price index +1.3% vs +0.5% expected"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Highest since March of 2022<\/li>\n<li>Prices for nonfuel imports rose 1.1% in February<\/li>\n<li>Prior was +0.2%<\/li>\n<li>Export prices +1.5% vs +0.5% expected<\/li>\n<li>Prior export prices +0.6%<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is before the war. I&#8217;m starting to get the feeling we&#8217;re about to have a big inflation problem as it was broad based. Higher prices for imports were driven by capital goods; nonfuel industrial supplies<br \/>\nand materials; consumer goods excluding automotives; foods, feeds, and beverages; and automotive<br \/>\nvehicles, parts and engines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">Import prices rose 1.3% month-over-month, blowing past the kind of readings we&#8217;ve been getting. That&#8217;s the biggest monthly gain since the 2.9% spike back in March 2022, when post-COVID supply chain chaos was still ripping through the data. On a year-over-year basis, import prices are up 1.3% \u2014 the strongest annual read since February 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">What&#8217;s driving it? A bit of everything, frankly. Fuel imports jumped 3.8% on the month, with natural gas absolutely ripping at +24.7%. But this isn&#8217;t just an energy story \u2014 nonfuel imports rose 1.1%, and that&#8217;s the number that should get your attention. Capital goods prices surged 1.3%, the largest advance since the BLS started publishing that series monthly in December 1988. Computers, peripherals, semiconductors, and industrial machinery were the culprits there.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">Nonfuel industrial supplies and materials climbed 2.6%, building on January&#8217;s 2.4% gain. Finished metals shapes and advanced manufacturing are where the pressure is concentrated \u2014 think tariff front-running.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">On the export side, prices jumped 1.5%, the biggest monthly move since May 2022. Year-over-year export prices are running at +3.5%. Nonag industrial supplies surged 3.6% on the month, led by natural gas, crude, and nonferrous metals. Export prices to Canada rose 1.9% in February alone and are up 6.5% year-over-year \u2014 the hottest since late 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">The terms of trade with the EU improved 2.6% in February, suggesting US exporters are gaining pricing power relative to what we&#8217;re paying for European goods.<\/p>\n<p>                            This article was written by Adam Button at investinglive.com.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Highest since March of 2022 Prices for nonfuel imports rose 1.1% in February Prior was +0.2% Export prices +1.5% vs +0.5% expected Prior export prices +0.6% This is before the war. I&#8217;m&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":216,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-428894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-market-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/216"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428894\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}