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Price changes are reflected by changes in unit value indices, which are compiled based on average unit values or, for certain commodities, based on specific price data.
The terms of trade index, defined as the ratio of total export price index to import price index, decreased by 1.7% in the first 11 months of 1995 over the same period last year.
Comparing November 1995 with November 1994, the volume of re-exports increased by 5.6%, while that of domestic exports decreased by 9.7%. Taken together, the volume of total exports increased by 2.7%. Meanwhile, the volume of imports grew by 3.6%.
Over the same period of comparison, the prices of re-exports and domestic exports increased by 2.9% and 2.2% respectively. Import prices increased by 3%.
The changes in the value, unit value and volume of re-exports by end-use category are shown in Table 1.
Comparing November 1995 with November 1994, the volume of re-exports of most of the end-use categories recorded increases of various magnitudes: fuels (+112%), capital goods (+20%), raw materials and semi-manufactures (+2.3%), and consumer goods (+1.6%).
On the other hand, the volume of re-exports of foodstuffs decreased by 4.8%.
Over the same period of comparison, increases in the prices of re-exports were noted of most of the end-use categories: raw materials and semi-manufactures (+5.6%), consumer goods (+2.3%), foodstuffs (+1.7%), and capital goods (+0.4%).
On the other hand, the re-export price of fuels decreased by 4.5%.
The changes in the value, unit value and volume of domestic exports by principal commodity group are shown in Table 2.
Comparing November 1995 with November 1994, commodity groups which recorded increases in volume of domestic exports included radios of all kinds (+172%); and travel goods, handbags and similar articles (+11%).
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