All commodity terms of trade (ToT) declined by 0.12 percentage points in the first quarter of 2024 (Q1’24), just as the value of imports increased by 0.51 percentage points during the period.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) disclosed this in its All-Commodity Price Indices and ToT report for Q1’24. It noted that an increase in the terms of trade between two periods (or when TOT is greater than 100 per cent) means that the value of exports is increasing relative to the value of imports and that the country can afford more imports for the same value of exports.
The bureau also said that the all-group export and all-group import indices increased by 0.39 per cent.
“The all-commodity ToT for January, February and March 2024 stood at 101.89 per cent, 101.77 per cent, and 101.75 per cent respectively.
“The all-commodity Group ToT decreased by 0.16 per cent points in February and marginally increased by 0.03 per cent points in March, resulting in a decrease of 0.12 per cent points between January and March 2024.”
It said the All-Region Export Index increased by 0.39 per cent between January and March 2024. “This was due to an increase in changes in export prices to all the regions; Asia (+0.68), America (+0.55), Europe (+0.54), Africa (+0.22), and Oceania (+0.2),” it said.
Similarly, the NBS said, between January and February 2024, export prices increased by (+0.18) per cent points. This was also attributed to changes in the export price to most regions.
It noted that the All-Region Import Price Index increased by 0.51 per cent point between January and March 2024 due to rising import prices from Asia (+0.66), America (+0.52), Europe (+0.49), Oceania (0.25) and Africa (+0.22).