XN000022-1996-06-07 — Page 12

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Volume and price movements of external trade in March

In the first three months of 1996, the volume of re-exports increased by 7.5% over the same period last year, while the volume of domestic exports decreased by 7.4%, according to the statistics released today (Friday) by the Census and Statistics Department.

Taking re-exports and domestic exports together, the volume of total exports increased by 4,9%. Meanwhile, imports increased by 5.2% 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 1.2% and 1.8% respectively. Import prices increased by 1.4%.

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 no significant change in the first three months of 1996 over the same period last year.

Comparing March 1996 with March 1995, the volume of re-exports decreased by 4.9%, while that of domestic exports decreased by 20%. Taken together, the volume of total exports decreased by 7.4%. Meanwhile, the volume of imports decreased by 1.0%.

Over the same period of comparison, the prices of re-exports and domestic exports increased by 0.7% and 1.8% respectively. Import prices increased marginally by 0.6%.

The changes in the value, unit value and volume of re-exports by end-use category are shown in Table 1.

Comparing March 1996 with March 1995, the volume of re-exports of fuels and capital goods increased by 25% and 16% respectively.