Nigeria’s All-commodity Terms of Trade down 0.14% in Q1’22

BY CHISOM NWATU

Nigeria’s All-commodity Terms of Trade (TOT) index fell by 0.14 percent in the first quarter of 2022 (Q1 ’22), according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

This is a 0.11 percentage point quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) decline compared to 0.25 percent recorded in Q1’21.

Terms of Trade (TOT) represents the ratio between a country’s export prices and its import prices. Its indexes are defined as the value of a country’s total exports minus total imports, while the ratio is calculated by dividing the price of the exports by the price of the imports and multiplying the result by 100.

NBS, in its Commodity Price Indices and TOT Report for Q1’22 released Tuesday, said the fall in Q1’22 TOT was as a result of increase in changes in import prices relative to changes in export prices of live animals, animal products, animal and vegetable fats and oils, other cleavage products and products of the chemical and allied industries

The state-funded statistical agency said the all-commodity group import index increased by 0.22 percent in 2022, representing a 0.25 percentage point QoQ decline when compared to 0.47 percent in Q4’ 21.

Likewise, the all-commodity group export price index increased by 0.08 percent, representing a 0.25 percentage point decline when compared to 0.33 percent in Q4’21.

“The All-commodity Terms of Trade for January, February, and March, 2022 stood at 103.15 percent, 103.42 percent, and 103 percent, respectively. The All-commodity group ToT increased by 0.26 percent in February and declined by 0.40 percent in March, resulting in a decline of (-0.14 percent) between January and March 2022,” NBS said.