Sectoral Price and Quantity Indexes of Argentine Foreign Trade

Argentina does not have a sufficiently complete and developed system of sectoral statistical data on foreign trade. This paper tries to make a contribution showing a methodology to calculate foreign trade indexes, based on unit values obtained from Foreign Trade Consultation System of INDEC. This methodology is applied to the quarterly data of Argentine sectoral imports and exports and its accuracy is shown from the comparison with price indexes published by INDEC (aggregate level) and Brazilian statistical institute (sectoral level). Our indexes show a correlation above 80% and variability close to the benchmark in almost all sectors. Finally, we analyzed the contribution of each sector to foreign trade growth during 1996-2016 using the estimated quantity indexes, something impossible to obtain without the estimated price indexes. Both real exports and imports show a weak growth pace of 2.3% and 2.4% per year, respectively. The leading sectors are Foodstuff industry and Agricultural products in exports, and Motor vehicles and Chemical products in imports for the whole period