Volume and price movements of external trade in February
In the first two months of 1996, the volume of re-exports increased by 14% over the same period last year, while the volume of domestic exports decreased by 0.8%, according to the statistics released today (Thursday) by the Census and Statistics Department.
Taking re-exports and domestic exports together, the volume of total exports increased by 12%. Meanwhile, imports increased by 9% in volume.
The growth in the volume of trade is derived from the growth in trade values with the effect of price changes being discounted.
As regards price changes over the same period of comparison, the prices of re- exports and domestic exports increased by 1.6% and 1.9% respectively. Import prices increased by 1.9%.
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 marginally by 0.2% in first two months of 1996 over the same period last year.
Comparing February 1996 with February 1995, the volume of re-exports increased by 7.3%, while that of domestic exports decreased by 5.6%. Taken together, the volume of total exports increased by 5.1%. Meanwhile, the volume of imports decreased by 4.3%.
Over the same period of comparison, the prices of re-exports and domestic exports increased by 1.2% and 2% respectively. Import prices increased by 1.6%.
Caution should be exercised in interpreting the changes in the volume of trade for a single month at the beginning of each year which may be affected by the timing of the Lunar New Year holidays. It is more meaningful to make comparisons over a longer period.
The changes in the value, unit value and volume of re-exports by end-use category are shown in Table 1.
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