By Eric Morath and Sarah Chaney 
 

WASHINGTON--The cost of goods imported into the U.S. declined in December due to plunging petroleum prices, the Labor Department said Wednesday. Here are the report's key takeaways:

--Import prices decreased 1.0% in December from the previous month. Unlike other price measures produced by the government, import prices are not seasonally adjusted. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal forecast a 1.5% decrease for December.

--The monthly decline entirely reflected lower oil prices. The cost of imported petroleum fell 11.6% in December after falling 16% the prior month. Meanwhile, import prices outside of petroleum rose 0.3%, the largest monthly gain since February.

--From a year earlier, overall import prices were down 0.6%. December was the first month since October 2016 in which import prices fell on a year-over-year basis. The annual decline stands in sharp contrast to the 1.9% growth in the consumer-price index for December from a year.

--Import prices decelerated rapidly in the second half of 2018. In July, prices had risen 4.8% from a year earlier. By December prices had fallen from the same month in 2017. The decline in 2018 was the first calendar-year drop since import prices fell 8.3% in 2015.

--Revised figures showed import prices fell 1.9% in November from October. That was the largest monthly decline since January 2015.

--Import prices reflect costs before any tariffs are applied.

--Thursday's report showed export prices fell 0.6% in December but were up 1.1% from a year earlier.

Write to Eric Morath at eric.morath@wsj.com and Sarah Chaney at sarah.chaney@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 16, 2019 08:45 ET (13:45 GMT)