While the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing a significant drop in U.S. import prices in the month of December, the decrease was not quite as steep as economists had anticipated.

The Labor Department said import prices tumbled by 1.2 percent in December after falling by a revised 0.5 percent in November.

Economists had expected import prices to slump by 1.4 percent compared to the 0.4 percent drop originally reported for the previous month.

The report also said export prices slid by 1.1 percent in December following a revised 0.7 percent decrease in November.

Export prices had been expected to dip by 0.5 percent compared to the 0.6 percent decrease originally reported for the previous month.

The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com