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Baltic Dry Index

Trade and External Balance

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The Baltic Dry Index is a daily shipping freight cost index released by the London based Baltic Exchange that measures rates for transporting dry bulk cargo, combining timecharter averages for Capesize, Panamax and Supramax vessels. Launched on November 1, 1999 as the successor to the earlier Baltic Freight Index, it is tracked by financial professionals worldwide as a general bellwether of the dry bulk shipping market. Because it reflects demand for shipping raw materials such as coal, grain and metal ores that feed directly into global production, and because operators do not book freighters unless they already have cargo to move, economists regard it as a relatively pure economic indicator that is resistant to speculative distortion.

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