Informatics

Commerce: Trade

Trade

 

Application of Informatics

International trade has existed since Marco Polo traveled on Silk Road in 13th century, or even earlier. In the last few decades its significance has increased dramatically, partially driven by cheap transport and partly by the dropping of trade barriers. The nature of our global trade shapes both the strategy of international relationships, and domestic policies. Australian's mining boom (which has contributed ~$A300 billion to our economy to date), is generally accepted to be driven by the expansion of the Chinese economy, and is an example how Australian foreign policy and prosperity are tied to our international trade.

 

Informatics in Action

This example illustrates the recent history of Australia-China export-import total trade value (in $A millions, plotted per month) in the top chart, against the exchange rate between Australian dollar and Chinese yuan in the lower chart. The dark blue represents import trade value and lighter blue indicates export trade value. Some interesting phenomena are readily apparent - e.g. Australia's export total to China tends to be lower than its import but both are closely aligned, and Australian imports from China seem to increase towards the later part of the year (possibly Christmas presents?). You can also see that the floating of China's currency in 1994 did not have a significant impact on Australia's trade.

 

 

Resources

Data
Code
Other Resources