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Volume and price movements of external trade in May
In the first five months of 1995, the volume of re-exports increased by 18% over the same period last year, while the volume of domestic exports increased by 7.8%, according to the statistics released today (Monday) by the Census and Statistics Department.
Taking re-exports and domestic exports together, the volume of total exports increased by 16%. Meanwhile, imports increased by 19% 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 3.6% and 2.4% respectively. Import prices increased by 5.9%.
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 by 2.4% in the first five months of 1995 over the same period last year.
Comparing May 1995 with May 1994, the volume of re-exports increased by 23%, while that of domestic exports increased by 9.3%. Taken together, the volume of total exports increased by 20%. Meanwhile, the volume of imports grew by 19%.
Over the same period of comparison, the prices of re-exports and domestic exports increased by 4.2% and 3.4% respectively. Import prices increased by 6.7%.
The changes in the value, unit value and volume of re-exports by end-use category are shown in Table 1.
Comparing May 1995 with May 1994, the volume of re-exports of most of the end-use categories recorded increases of various magnitudes: capital goods (+36%), raw materials and semi-manufactures (+27%), consumer goods (+16%), and foodstuffs (+14%).
On the other hand, the volume of re-exports of fuels decreased by 3.5%.
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