Volume and price movements of external trade in April
In the first four months of 1996, the volume of re-exports increased by 10% over the same period last year, while the volume of domestic exports decreased by 5.4%, according to the statistics released today by the Census and Statistics Department.
Taking re-exports and domestic exports together, the volume of total exports increased by 7.4%. Meanwhile, imports increased by 6.7% 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 0.9% and 1.7% respectively. Import prices increased by 0.7%.
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, recorded a marginal increase of 0.3% in the first four months of 1996 over the same period last year.
Comparing April 1996 with April 1995, the volume of re-exports increased by 17%, while that of domestic exports increased by 0.6%. Taken together, the volume of total exports increased by 15%. Meanwhile, the volume of imports increased by 11%.
Over the same period of comparison, the prices of re-exports recorded no significant change, while those of domestic exports increased by 1.4%. Import prices, on the other hand, decreased by 1.2%.
The changes in the value, unit value and volume of re-exports by end-use category are shown in Table 1.
Comparing April 1996 with April 1995, the volume of re-exports of all end-use categories recorded increases of various magnitudes: fuels (+33%); capital goods (+26%); raw materials and semi-manufactures (+20%); foodstuffs (+15%); and consumer goods (+12%).