Mubasher: The costs of the US imports declined in May, the first decline since last December, on the back of a drop in non-fuel and fuel import prices, data revealed on Thursday.

The price index for the country’s imports went down by 0.3% last May, after a 0.1% gain in April, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said.

Import prices surged 1.8% during the period between December and April.

The cost of fuel imports such as oil and natural gas dropped by 1% last month, reversing a surge of 25.4% over the preceding four months.

Moreover, omitting fuel import prices, the importing costs edged down by 0.3% during May.

Nevertheless, on an annualised basis, the gauge for import costs posted a drop 2.2% last month, the biggest since August 2016.

US export prices went down by 0.2% last May, ending a gaining trend that was carried through the previous three months.

By 12:53 pm GMT, the EUR/USD pair edged down by 0.05% to $1.1281.