By Sarah Chaney and Ben Leubsdorf 
 

WASHINGTON--Overall prices for foreign goods shipped to the U.S. rebounded in August, buoyed in part by a rise in fuel prices.

Import prices increased 0.6% in August from a month earlier, following declines in the prior three months, the Labor Department said Tuesday. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expected a 0.5% increase in import prices last month. Data on import prices are not adjusted for seasonality.

The Labor Department noted Hurricane Harvey did not affect the collection of import-price data for August.

Over the past year, overall import prices have grown 2.1%.

The price of imported oil jumped 4.8% in August from the prior month. Outside of petroleum, import prices increased 0.3% last month.

The import-price index is one of several gauges the Federal Reserve studies to understand how quickly prices for products are rising in the U.S. The consumer price index, measuring what Americans pay for everything ranging from medicine to cars, increased 0.4% in August from a month earlier, the Labor Department said last week.

Tuesday's report also showed prices for U.S. exports increased 0.6% in August from a month earlier. From a year earlier, export prices were up 2.3%.

The Labor Department report on import and export prices can be accessed at: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ximpim.toc.htm.

Write to Sarah Chaney at sarah.chaney@wsj.com and Ben Leubsdorf at ben.leubsdorf@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 19, 2017 08:45 ET (12:45 GMT)

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