Monarch Talks to Marketplace About Import Prices and Inflation

November 20, 2025

Marketplace

Ryan Monarch

Economics Department

Trade, Development, and Political Economy Working Group

Federal

Tariffs

Trade

United States

Marketplace

Ryan Monarch

With tariffs in the news, more economists are paying close attention to delayed reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on import/export price indexes. The BLS measures import prices before tariffs are applied and, thus, can point to who might be absorbing the cost of the import taxes.

Import prices also directly affect consumers, according to Ryan Monarch, associate professor of economics.

“Ten percent of all their expenditures are on imported products. And so sometimes import prices will be something that is moving overall inflation numbers around,” Monarch said.

Read more or listen to the full story on Marketplace, “ Government import, export data can show impact of Trump's tariffs.”