Import prices fell in December, but not as much as the market expected, as oil prices continued to decline last month and recession worries kept the prices of foreign goods down.

The U.S. Labor Department said import prices fell for the fifth-straight month in December by 4.2%, primarily brought down by the price of oil. Import prices in November were revised downward even more, down to 7% in November compared with an earlier decline of 6.7%.

While the decline in import prices was not as much as economists had expected – they were predicting a decline of 6% decline according to Thomson Reuters – it shows that any threat of inflation is minimal at the moment.

For individual prices, non-petroleum industrial supplies and materials imports fell 5.1%, while automobile prices fell by 0.2% and capital goods were 0.3% lower. Food prices were up 2.3% on the month, and consumer products prices registered a 0.1% increase.

Excluding petroleum, import prices were down 1.1% from the month before. Import prices were 0.9% higher on the year.

Business Inventories

Business inventories fell in November by 0.7% to a seasonally adjusted $1.485 trillion, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. Economists were looking for business inventories to fall 0.4% during November.

Business sales decreased 5.1% to a level of $1.057 trillion in November, the data showed. Sales in October dropped 3.9%; originally, October sales were seen 3.5% lower.

The inventory-to-sales ratio, which is the amount of inventory businesses have before selling everything, rose to 1.41 from 1.34 in October, Commerce said. The 1.41 figure is the highest since 1.44 in September 2001.