The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) yesterday said Nigeria’s terms of trade (ToT) declined by 2.8 per cent in Q4 of 2018.
ToT can be interpreted as the amount of import goods an economy can purchase per unit of export goods.
The decline recorded in Q4’18 means a drop in the value of Nigeria’s export compared to the imports.
According to the Bureau, the groups that contributed to the development were products of the chemical and allied industries, mineral products and live animals; animal products.
The Bureau disclosed this in its Commodity Price Indices and ToT Q4’18 report.
The report stated: “The all products terms of trade index stood at 98.0 percent in October, 99.6 percent in November and 95.1 percent in December.
This indicated an increase of 1.64 percent in November and a decrease of 4.48 percent in December.
“On average, the terms of trade declined by 2.8 percent during the quarter, further indicating less favourable terms of trade.
“The product groups that contributed to these changes were products of the chemical and allied industries, mineral products and live animals; animal products.”
The Bureau noted that all commodity group import index, on average, grew by 0.89 percent during the quarter while all commodity group export index decreased by 2.02 percent.
“The All commodity group import index, on average, grew by 0.89 percent during the quarter, following a 0.47percent drop in November and a 1.36 percent rise in December.
Food prices drop Meanwhile, the prices of eggs, rice, tomatoes and yam dropped in February 2019, according to the NBS’ “Selected Food Price Watch” report for February 2019.
The data indicated that the average price of one dozen of Agric eggs medium size decreased year-on-year (YoY) by 10.56% and month-on month (MoM) by 1.19% to N464.27 in February 2019 from N469.85 in January 2019, while the average price of a piece of Agric eggs medium size increased YoY by 2.33% and month-on-month by 0.12% to N42.23 in February 2019 from N42.18 in January 2019
The report further stated: “The average price of 1kg of tomato decreased YoY by -3.97% and month-on-month by -3.38% to N256.50 in February 2019 from N265.49 in December 2018.
“The average price of 1kg of rice (imported high quality sold loose) decreased year-on-year by 0.23% and decreased month-on-month by -0.45% to N364.38 in February 2019 from N366.04 in January 2019.
“Similarly, the average price of 1kg of yam tuber decreased year-on-year by -10.56% and month-on month by -2.24% to N206.48 in February 2019 from N211.21 in January 2019.”
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