## Commodity Terms of Trade: A New Database

_IMF Working Papers, January 24, 2019_

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [Commodity Terms of Trade: A New Database](https://www.imf.org/en/publications/wp/issues/2019/01/24/commodity-terms-of-trade-a-new-database-46522)

## Other formats

- [Markdown version](/en/publications/wp/issues/2019/01/24/commodity-terms-of-trade-a-new-database-46522/index.md)
- [Structured JSON version](/en/publications/wp/issues/2019/01/24/commodity-terms-of-trade-a-new-database-46522/index.json)
- [Bundle manifest](/en/publications/wp/issues/2019/01/24/commodity-terms-of-trade-a-new-database-46522/bundle-manifest.json)

## Bibliographic details
- Authors: Bertrand Gruss, Suhaib Kebhaj
- Published: January 24, 2019
- Series: IMF Working Papers
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781484393857.001

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### Overview and purpose
- Presents a comprehensive database of country-specific commodity price indices for 182 economies covering the period 1962-2018.
- Purpose: to construct commodity terms-of-trade indices that proxy windfall gains and losses of income associated with changes in world prices and to provide additional country-specific series for analysis.

### Data coverage and construction
- Country coverage: 182 economies.
- Time span: 1962-2018.
- Commodity coverage: change in the international price of up to 45 individual commodities per country.
- Weighting approaches:
  - Fixed weights: based on average trade flows over several decades.
  - Time-varying weights: account for time variation in the mix of commodities traded and the overall importance of commodities in economic activity.
- Additional series provided: commodity export price indices and commodity import price indices.
- Weighting uses commodity-level trade data to combine commodity price changes into country-specific indices.

### Indices and measures
- Primary index: commodity terms-of-trade index (proxy for windfall income gains and losses from world price changes).
- Complementary indices: commodity export price index; commodity import price index.
- Both fixed-weight and time-varying-weight indices are available to support alternative empirical strategies.

### Analytical focus and applications
- Discusses the dynamics of commodity terms of trade across country groups.
- Examines the influence of commodity terms of trade on key macroeconomic aggregates.
- Suitable for cross-country empirical research on commodity price shocks, trade balance effects, and income volatility linked to world commodity prices.

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## Content in this bundle

- **Commodity Terms of Trade: A New Database, WP/19/21, January 2019**
  - [Commodity Terms of Trade: A New Database, WP/19/21, January 2019 (Markdown version)](/-/media/files/publications/wp/2019/wp1921.pdf.md){rel="alternate" type="text/markdown"}
  - [Commodity Terms of Trade: A New Database, WP/19/21, January 2019 (PDF)](/-/media/files/publications/wp/2019/wp1921.pdf){rel="external" type="application/pdf"}

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/wp/issues/2019/01/24/commodity-terms-of-trade-a-new-database-46522_