Date Released: March 05, 2007
FOREIGN TRADE INDICES
THIRD QUARTER 2005
(1995=100)
SUMMARY
Growth Rate in Merchandise Foreign Trade Indices:
3rd Quarter and 2nd Quarter 2005
| Index | Year-on-Year | Quarter-on-Quarter | ||
| 3rd Qtr 2005 | 2nd Qtr 2005 | 3rd Qtr 2005 | 2nd Qtr 2005 | |
| VALUE INDEX | ||||
| Exports | 5.0 | 3.5 | 7.9 | 3.9 |
| Imports | 10.2 | 3.4 | 7.9 | 14.7 |
| PRICE INDEX | ||||
| Exports | 6.8 | 4.3 | 3.3 | (2.4) |
| Imports | 22.3 | 9.9 | 13.5 | 1.8 |
| QUANTITY INDEX | ||||
| Exports | (1.5) | (0.5) | (4.8) | (6.3) |
| Imports | (10.3) | (6.0) | (5.1) | 12.2 |
Value index for both imports and exports continued to register positive annual growth rates during the third quarter of the current year.
Price index for imports and exports sustained a positive year-on-year growth during the third quarter of 2005.
Volume index for both imports and exports showed declines during the third quarter of the current year.
I. VALUE INDEX
A. Exports
- Year-on-Year (3rd Quarter 2005 over 3rd Quarter 2004)
Merchandise exports registered an aggregate value index of 245.1, representing a 5.0 percent increment from 233.4 index points during the same quarter of the previous year. Composite index for Mineral Fuels, Lubricants and Related Materials had the biggest rise as it grew by 62.2 percent to 295.2 index points from 182.0 index points.
Value index for Electronic Products at 425.8 went up by 6.4 percent from 400.2 index points.
|
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
B. Imports
Year-on-Year (3rd Quarter 2005 over 3rd Quarter 2004)
The value index for merchandise imports, posted a positive year-on-year growth at 10.2 percent. The increase was mainly attributed to Mineral Fuels, Lubricants and Related Materials group, which showed a 54.0 percent increment from 193.8 index points to 298.3 index points in 2005.
Value index for imports of Electronic Products fell by 3.2 percent to 319.8 from 330.4 index points.
|
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
II. PRICE INDEX
A. Exports
Year-on-Year (3rd Quarter 2005 over 3rd Quarter 2004)
The price index for total merchandise exports continued to display annual positive rate, as it increased by 6.8 percent to 126.0 index points from 118.0 index points during the third quarter of the previous year. The upward trend in the overall export price index was due to the increments in seven commodity groups with Mineral Fuels, Lubricants and Related Materials contributing the highest gain at 75.0 percent. However, decreases were observed in three groups with Beverages and Tobacco having the biggest negative rate of 13.3 percent.
The price index for Electronic Products at 194.0 index points represented an 8.6 percent growth over the same quarter of the previous year.
|
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Year-on-Year (3rd Quarter 2005 over 3rd Quarter 2004)
The price index for merchandise imports continued to exhibit annual positive growth of 22.3 percent to 126.0 index points from 103.0 index points during the third quarter of 2004. Increments were observed in seven major groups with Commodities and Transactions NEC in the PSCC and Mineral Fuels, Lubricants and Related Materials having the biggest positive rate at 61.5 percent and 48.0 percent, respectively.
Likewise, the price index for imports of Electronic Products jumped by a double-digit figure of 59.5 percent.
|
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
III. VOLUME INDEX
Year-on-Year (3rd Quarter 2005 over 3rd Quarter 2004)
The volume of merchandise exports, registered a slight negative annual growth during the current quarter. The index dropped by 1.5 percent to 195.0 index points from 198.0 index points.
Declines in the index of four commodity groups contributed to the negative growth of 1.5 percent. Mineral Fuels, Lubricants and Related Materials reflected the biggest decrease at 7.2 percent.
Similarly, the volume index of Electronic Products fell by 2.0 percent from 223.9 to 219.5 index points.
|
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Year-on-Year (3rd Quarter 2005 over 3rd Quarter 2004)
The volume index for merchandise imports kept on showing a negative rate at 10.3 percent during the current quarter. Declines were observed in six groups with Commodities and Transactions NEC in the PSCC posting the highest decrease at 39.6 percent.
In the same way, the volume index for Electronic Products dropped by 39.3 percent to 148.9 index points from 245.3 index points.
|
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
IV. TECHNICAL NOTES
A. Objectives and Uses of Merchandise Trade Indexes
The National Statistics Office generates Merchandise Trade Indexes, namely value index, quantity index and price index for merchandise exports and imports. These indexes provide a general measure of the changes in value, volume and prices of exported/imported commodity or group of commodities in a given period of time. Thus, these mainly measure the composite changes in the value, quantity and price of various merchandise trades over time.
The main objective of using indexes is to break down changes in the values of exports or imports into price changes and volume changes. Thus, indexes help us analyze whether a change in value of exports or imports of a commodity or group of commodities can be explained by changes in prices, volumes or both. Furthermore, indexes can be used to (1) measure price behavior in international markets, and (2) serve as basis for calculating volume of merchandise trade, which is what is measured in Gross Domestic Product.
B. Source Data and Calculations for Merchandise Trade Indexes
The index calculations are based on the customs declarations, i.e., export and import documents, collected by the National Statistics Office from the Bureau of Customs. For purposes of calculating indexes, the information on the F.O.B. value (in US Dollars) and the quantity exported and imported are used. Furthermore, the base year used is 1995 so that the base data used are the values and quantities of exports and imports of specific commodities in 1995. The value index of a commodity is computed as the quotient of current and base year value, similarly the price index of the same is calculated as the ratio of current price over base price. In addition, the relative importance of commodities (i.e., weights) in the total export/import is taken into account in the computation of price index. Finally, the quantity index is derived as the ratio between the computed value indexes over the computed price index.
The over-all merchandise trade indexes are generated using ten commodity sections in the Philippine Standard Commodity Classification (PSCC) of 1993. The ten sections are: Food and Live Animals; Beverages and Tobacco; Crude Materials, Inedible, Except Fuels; Mineral Fuels, Lubricants and Related Materials; Animal and Vegetable Oils, Fats and Waxes; Chemicals and Related Products; Manufactured Goods Classified Chiefly by Materials; Machinery and Transport Equipment; Miscellaneous Manufactured Articles and Commodities and Transactions NEC in the PSCC.
The most detailed commodity specification contains approximately 8,314 commodity sub-items and they are defined as aggregate of the commodity classification by which the indexes are based on.
Detailed discussion on the methodology can be found in special releases on Foreign Trade posted on the NSO website, http://www.census.gov.ph/data/sectordata/datafts.html.
(Sgd.) CARMELITA N. ERICTA
Administrator
Source: National Statistics Office
Manila, Philippines
Page last updated: March 5, 2007