The graph below shows the price of bananas in four countries between 1996 and 2004.

The line graph illustrates the prices of bananas in Japan, France, Germany and the USA between 1996 and 2004. Overall, Japan had the 1highest banana priceshighest banana prices of bananas throughout most of the period, 2with the greatest degree of fluctuationand fluctuated the most. 3The USA held the lowest price of bananas, with Germany and France remaining between these two countries. The USA held the lowest price of bananas, at only US$1 per kilogram in 1996. Then the price in the USA 4remained flat at US$1 in 1997 before rising in 1998increased sharply in 1997, 5climbing to approximately US$1.3 per kilogram in 1998climbing to a peak of approximately US$1.4 per kilogram. After that, the price in the USA remained stable at around US$1.3. But the price in Japan was much higher. 6Except in 2003, 7Japan experienced a sharp drop from US$2.5 to US$1.5Japan experienced a shock dropping from US$2.5 to US$1.5, lower than US$2 in France and nearly US$1.8 in Germany. At other 8timestime, Japan recorded the highest price. 9The prices in Germany and France also fluctuated significantly, but wereThe price in Germany and France also fluctuated a lot, but were much lower than Japan. In 1996, France and Japan 10both stood at US$2 per kilogramshared the price of US$2, and the price in Germany was US$1.5. Then the three 11countriesconutries fluctuated to different extents. In 1996 and 1997, the price in France remained stable, Germany decreased to approximately US$1.3 and Japan experienced a sharp increase to a peak of US$3. However, all of them decreased significantly in 1999, 12with Japan falling to US$2, Germany dropping to nearly US$1.2, and France decreasing to US$1.5Japan falling to US$2, Germany dropping to nearly US$1.3 and France decreasing to US$1.5.