Merchandise Trade Indices

News- India’s Merchandise Trade Indices have been revised with a new base year FY 2022–23 to reflect structural changes in trade patterns.

About Merchandise Trade Indices

• Merchandise Trade Indices measure changes in the unit values and quantities of India’s exports and imports over time.
• Published by: It is compiled and published by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S), Ministry of Commerce & Industry.
• Purpose
  • It measures changes in the unit values and quantities of India’s exports and imports.
  • It indicates external sector price movements and supports economic analysis and national accounts compilation.
• Usage
  • Government institutions use these indices for economic analysis and policy formulation.
  • The National Accounts Division uses them as deflators for estimating real exports and imports.
  • The Reserve Bank of India uses them for external sector and balance of payments analysis.
  • Ministries, research organisations, and analysts use them for trade policy review and empirical research.
• Base Year: The base year has been revised from FY 2012–13 to FY 2022–23 (2022–23 = 100).
• Revision Committee: The revision was recommended by a committee constituted by DGCI&S under the chairmanship of Prof. Nachiketa Chattopadhyay, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.
• Indices Compiled
  • The revised series includes monthly, quarterly and annual export and import unit value indices.
  • It includes trade indices classified by Principal Commodity, Standard International Trade Classification (SITC), and Broad Economic Categories (BEC).
  • It includes bilateral and region-wise trade indices for India’s top 20 export and import partner nations.
  • It includes Terms of Trade indices (Net, Gross and Income Terms of Trade).

Improved Methodology: Methodological refinements have been introduced in the selection of the common commodity basket and in the treatment of missing unit values, as explained in the committee report.