Testing The Equality Of Export And Import Commodities Price Index In Nigeria

ABSTRACT This study examined the equality of export and import commodities price index in Nigeria. The source of data employed in this study is secondary data obtained from the Central bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin 2010. The statistical tool used in analyzing the data was the Permutation method for Hotelling T-Squared and Descriptive statistics. The result of the analysis showed that there exists a significant difference between monthly export and import commodities price index in Nigeria with a test statistic value of 58.31 and a p-value of 0.00 for 10 000 permutations. Also it was observed that across the years import commodities price index has been greater than export commodities price index. Hence we conclude that export and import commodities price index in Nigeria are not equal and that import commodities price index has always been lager than export commodities price index. We advocate for more studies within the context of price statistics in Nigeria since the significance of price statistics in the economy of any nation cannot be overemphasized because they constitute a very useful tool for policy making economic planning analysis and monitoring. Also price signals have been found to enhance better understanding of the degree of economic stability in any nation.