Export and import price indices - March 2005
Strong Czech crown compensated expensive crude oil
Publication Date: 13. 05. 2005
Product Code: r-7201-05
Goods import and export price indices in the CR
March 2005
March 2005
Month-on-month comparison:
- Import prices increased by +0.2% in March, export prices didn’t change. Import prices thus have risen the first time since October 2004. Since then, export prices haven’t decreased also for the first time. The main reason for this development of external trade prices was a sharp rise of crude oil prices on world markets in March.
- Imports: import prices have been influenced the most by prices of 'mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials', which increased in total by +4.6% (petroleum and petroleum products in particular). Prices of 'machinery and transport equipment' decreased by -0.5% (especially telecommunications and sound-recording and reproducing apparatus and equipment). Prices of 'miscellaneous manufactured articles' (-1.3%) decreased the most markedly.
- Exports : the biggest influence on the amount of the total m-o-m export price index was due to price increase of 'mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials' as in imports (+3.2%, petroleum products in particular). Due to this price growth also prices of 'chemicals and related products' increased (+0.8%, organic chemicals in particular). Prices of 'machinery and transport equipment' decreased (-0.3%, especially road vehicles and office machines) and thus haven’t increased since March 2004. Decreasing were also prices of 'manufactured goods classified chiefly by material' (-0.4%), 'miscellaneous manufactured articles' (-0.3%) and 'crude materials, inedible, except fuels' (-0.2%).
- Terms of trade reached the value of 99.8% and after the February’s amount of 100.0% they thus returned to negative values again. For more significant sections in terms of weight, the positive value of terms of trade was mainly for 'miscellaneous manufactured articles', 'chemicals and related products' (both 101.0%) and also 'machinery and transport equipment' (100.2%). Negative value of terms of trade was especially for 'crude materials, inedible, except fuels' (98.3%) and 'mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials' (98.7%).
Year-on-year comparison:
- Import prices decreased by -1.9% (by 0.8 percentage points more than in February), i.e. the most since January 2003 and thus they were decreasing already the third month. Export prices decreased by -1.0% and thus they decreased the first time since March 2003. The main cause of this was more marked y-o-y appreciation of CZK to main foreign currencies in comparison with February.
- Import prices were influenced the most by 'machinery and transport equipment' prices, which dropped by -6.4% in total (telecommunications and sound-recording and reproducing apparatus and equipment in particular), even though again especially due to stronger CZK. More significant decrease was observed also for import prices of 'miscellaneous manufactured articles' (-7.6%) and 'chemicals and related products' (-2.8%). In accord with the development on world markets, higher were especially prices of 'mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials' (+18.6%, petroleum and petroleum products in particular) and 'crude materials, inedible, except fuels' (+2.2%, mainly metalliferous ores and metal scrap).
- Export prices increased most for 'mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials' (+20.9%, coal and petroleum products in particular). This growth was also a reason for a price increase of 'chemicals and related products' (+5.5%, especially organic chemicals). Prices of 'manufactured goods classified chiefly by material' increased as well (+4.7%, iron and steel in particular). However, the biggest influence on the decrease of the total y-o-y export price index was due to price drop of 'machinery and transport equipment' (-6.4%, power-generating machinery and equipment in particular). Export prices of 'miscellaneous manufactured articles' (-4.4%), 'food and live animals' (-4.3%) and 'crude materials, inedible, except fuels' (-4.0%) decreased as well.
- Terms of trade reached the value of 100.9%, i.e. by 0.4 percentage points less than in February and at the same time the least since March 2003. High terms of trade figures were recorded in significant sections in terms of weight especially for ‘chemicals and related products’ (108.5%), ‘manufactured goods classified chiefly by material’ (105.3%) and 'miscellaneous manufactured articles' (103.5%); on the contrary, low figures were for 'crude materials, inedible, except fuels' (93.9%) and ‘food and live animals’ (96.6%). For ‘machinery and transport equipment’, they reached the value of 100.0%, i.e. by 0.3 percentage points less than in February.
CZSO world price index of raw materials and food 1)
April 2005
April 2005
Month-on-month comparison:
- The world prices covered by the index increased in April only by +1.6% in total, i.e. by 6.9 percentage points less than in March and at the same time the least since December 2004. The main cause of this low growth was price decrease of petroleum Brent (-0.3% the first time since December 2004). Crude oil price decreased mainly due to high oil supplies in the USA (the highest during the last three years) and increased oil mining by OPEC. On the other hand, decline of oil price was softened by breakdowns in oil refineries and investment funds buying. From other commodities, prices of natural gas increased (+6.2%) and also textile raw materials increased slightly; on the contrary, prices of metals (-3.1%), food, wood and leather decreased.
Year-on-year comparison:
- In April, the world prices were +44.1% up in total (by 1.4 percentage points more than in March) and thus speeded up their growth again. This was caused mainly by faster y-o-y price growth of natural gas (+49.5%, i.e. by 6.5 percentage points more than in March). Petroleum Brent prices increased y-o-y (+62.2%, i.e. by 1.1 percentage points less than in March). Y-o-y, prices of metals slowed down their growth, too (+10.7%, after previous 14.1%) as well as food. Prices of textile raw materials, rubber and wood decreased in particular.
1) The world prices follow actual prices in terms of original currencies read at commodity exchanges and indicate in advance the nature of the future development of Czech import and export prices of industrial raw materials and food.
Analysis Development of external trade price indices in the first quarter of 2005
Note
Contact: Jiří Choun, tel. (+420) 27405 2196, e-mail: choun@gw.czso.cz
Data source: CZSO survey
End of data collection: Last calendar day of the month
End of data processing: Import and export price indices: 40th calendar day following the end of reference month
CZSO world price indices: 10th calendar day following the end of reference month
Related publications: 7201-04 Import and Export Price Indices in the Czech Republic
7202-05 CZSO World Price Indices of Industrial Raw Materials and Food
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The released data are definitive.