Terms of Trade: methodology

What this metric measures

The ratio of Australia's export prices to its import prices, from the ABS International Trade Price Indexes. A rising index means the same exports buy more imports.

Why it matters: Terms of trade is the swing factor in national income: an iron ore or gas price move changes what the country can afford without anyone working differently.

Source & provenance

Publisher

ABS International Trade Price Indexes (Cat. 6457.0) - export price index divided by import price index, quarterly

Update frequency

quarterly

Licence

CC BY 4.0

How the score is computed

The score is a 0–100 normalisation of the latest observation, compared to a baseline window. The traffic-light rating (RAG) reflects both the absolute level and the recent trend.

Direction

Context-dependent

Trend window

24 months

Baseline

Last 10 years

{
  "neutral": true
}