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Trade in physical goods measured to remove price effects and describe volume changes.
Trade values reflect both prices and quantities. Statisticians use price or unit-value information to separate these effects and construct volume measures. A rise in oil prices can lift the dollar value of imports even when the quantity falls. The aggregate index also reflects the mix of products, so it is not a literal count of tonnes, containers or individual items.
Imagine a country importing 100 identical machines at US$1,000 each, then 110 at US$1,200 each. Import value rises from US$100,000 to US$132,000, a 32% increase. The quantity rises by 10%, while each machine's price rises by 20%. In this simplified single-product case, volume growth is 10%, showing why value growth cannot be read as quantity growth.
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