You can tell its a slow economic news day when all there is to talk about are the recent changes in the price indexes for imported and exported goods. I had planned to also report on the July report on the national budget. But, it looks like the Treasury Department was a little slow getting that information posted today. I'll bet you're sorry you missed that one.

The import and export price indexes are telling us that, in recent months, both our prices paid for imports and our prices received for exports are declining.

The price index for all imports declined by 0.2 percent in July, following declines in May and June of 0.6 percent and 1.1 percent. Petroleum import prices rose by 1.5 percent in July, but declined by 3.3 percent and 6.5 percent in May and June. The price index for nonpetroleum imports has been either down or unchanged for eight straight months.

The price index for all exports and the price index for agricultural exports both declined during the two most-recent months. In the past 13 months the index of nonagricultural export prices declined 9 times, was unchanged twice, and rose twice. The July change was a loss of 0.3 percent.

So, on balance, it looks like neither we nor our trading partners are so anxious to buy that our demands for goods are being manifested in a willingness to pay higher prices. On the contrary, it seems that we're both having to cut prices in order to keep the goods moving.

Pat Lafferty (MF Merlin)

Transmitted: 8/21/96 4:10 PM (econ305)