Import Goods Prices Decline in June

Prices of imported goods fell in June for the first time in four months as the cost of just about everything from cars to computers to crude oil declined, Labor Department figures showed. The import price index, a gauge of the cost of imported goods and raw materials, fell 0.2% last month. Excluding oil and petroleum products, import prices also were down 0.2%. The price of imported oil last month fell 0.9% after rising 7.8% in May and a huge 20.5% in April, the biggest increase since October 1990. In a separate report, the Commerce Department said after-tax profits of U.S. retailers fell to 2.3 cents for each dollar of sales in the first quarter, down from 3.1 cents in the previous quarter. In the 1998 first quarter, retailers earned profits after taxes of 2.1 cents per dollar of sales. Retailers generated total after-tax profits for the first quarter of 1999 of $6.68 billion, down from $9.73 billion in the fourth quarter of 1998. The Commerce Department bases its findings on quarterly financial reports supplied by 492 companies.