Export and Import Price Indices
2nd Quarter 2009
Highlights

Export Price Index
1. The Export Price Index for the 2nd quarter of 2009 stood at 98.6 representing an increase of 1.0% over the previous quarter of 2009 and 2.7% over the corresponding quarter of 2008.

2. The 1.0% increase was mainly due to an increase of 3.1% in the prices of “Miscellaneous manufactured articles” partly offset by a decrease of 3.7% in the prices of “Food and live animals”.

3. Compared to price levels in the corresponding quarter of 2008, the index was higher by 2.7%, mainly due to increases of 9.1% in the prices of “Miscellaneous manufactured articles” offset by a decrease of 11.7% in the prices of “Food and live animals”.

Import Price Index

1. The Import Price Index for the second quarter of 2009 worked out to 104.5, representing an increase of 0.9% over the previous quarter. Compared to the corresponding period of 2008, the index went down by 4.3%.

2. The 0.9% increase compared to the previous quarter was mainly due to increases in the import prices of “Mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials” (4.5%) and “Manufactured goods classified chiefly by material” (3.2%), partly offset by decreases of 0.5% and 1.1% in the prices of “food and live animals” and “Machinery and transport equipment” respectively.

3. Compared to the corresponding quarter of 2008, the index went down by 4.3%, mainly due to decreases in the prices of “Mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials” (-43.3%) and “Food and live animals” (-4.1%) , offset by increases of 13.9% and 13.7% in the prices of “Manufactured goods classified chiefly by material” and “Machinery and transport equipment” respectively.

Terms of trade

The terms of trade index (i.e. the ratio of Export Price Index to Import Price Index) remained unchanged during the second quarter of 2009. Compared to the corresponding period of 2008, the index increased by 6 percentage points from 88 to 94.