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WASHINGTON, Nov 14 (Reuters) - U.S import prices recorded their biggest one-month drop since 1988 in October as costs for imported oil took their sharpest plunge in five years, the Department of Labor said on Friday.
Overall import prices declined 4.7 percent, the largest one-month decline since the index was first published monthly in December 1988, after falling by a revised 3.3 percent in September.
Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast import prices would drop 4.2 percent. But for the 12 months through October import prices were still up 6.7 percent.
Petroleum prices tumbled 16.7 percent after falling by a revised 10.2 percent the previous month. October's drop in petroleum import prices was the largest since April 2003, the Department of Labor said, highlighting the economic downturn in the United States and elsewhere.
Oil has lost more than 60 percent of its value since hitting an all-time high above $147 per barrel in July as fears escalate that a deepening global economic crisis will depress demand.
Prices for U.S. exports slipped 1.9 percent in October, declining for the third straight month, after easing by a revised 0.8 percent in September.
October's fall in export prices was the largest one-month decline since the index was first published in December 1988, the Department of Labor said. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast export prices easing 1.0 percent in October.
Export prices were dragged lower by a drop in the prices for soybeans, corn and wheat. Export prices for the year through October were, however, still up 4.2 percent. (Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)