A seven-tenths percent increase in the prices of non-petroleum imports -- particularly of natural gas --more than offset a 1.6% decline in the price of petroleum imports in November. The result was a two-tenths percent increase in the Labor Department's U.S. Import Price Index for last month. The index had declined 2.3% in October.
On the other side of the trade ledger, the department's price index for U.S. exports rose four-tenths of a percentage point, as the prices of agricultural exports increased 4.4% and the prices of non-agricultural exports increased a tenth of a percent. The export price index had fallen three-tenths of a percent in October.
