U.S. import prices soared in January on higher energy, food and commodity prices, pushing the annual increase to a record high.

Import prices jumped 1.7% on a monthly basis in January, the U.S. Labor Department said today, compared to December’s 0.2% decline.

Wall Street economists expected only a 0.5% increase last month.

Compared to a year ago, import prices soared 13.7%, the highest reading since the government began compiling the data in 1982.

Petroleum import prices rose 5.5% last month compared to December, and were up 66.9% on the year, the steepest annual rise since October 2004. Natural-gas prices rose 1.6% on the month.

Excluding petroleum, import prices rose 0.6% in January and were up 3.6% on the year, the highest since October 2005.

Country-specific data suggest the dollar’s weakness against other major currencies is having an effect. Prices of imported goods from the European Union rose 1.1% on a monthly basis. Import prices from Canada rose 0.1% and were up 2.8% for products from Mexico. Prices of goods from China spiked 0.8%. Over the year, they rose 3.3%. Both the monthly and annual gains were records, suggesting the U.S. can no longer count on cheap imports from China to offset domestic price pressures. Import prices from Japan rose a more modest 0.1% last month compared to December.

Overall U.S. export prices surged 1.2% last month, a 19-year high.

Meanwhile, U.S. manufacturers’ woes were reflected in the Empire State Manufacturing survey, a measure of business conditions in New York State. The index fell in February to -11.7, its lowest reading since April 2003 and the first negative reading in three years. A sharp drop in orders and payrolls led the decline, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

As for U.S. consumers, a closely watched measure of consumer confidence, the Reuters/University of Michigan survey, fell to 69.6 in February, the lowest reading since February 1992. It had stood at 78.4 in January.

There was a sliver of good news for the economy. The Federal Reserve reported that industrial production grew 0.1% last month, keeping pace with December. Cold weather pushed up activity at electric and natural gas utilities, which offset a decline in output at auto manufacturers.

Capacity utilization, which measures the proportion of plants in use, held steady in January at 81.5%.