UNCTAD monitors trends in international trade
The newly launched report, which will appear annually, covers a range
of trends and indicators, including statistics on sectoral, regional and
South-South trade, on export diversification and sophistication, and on
intra-industry trade, to present factual information on global trade in
a concise and accessible manner, and to provide useful background
information for government delegates, policy makers and others working
in the global trade arena.
The publication showed that notwithstanding the economic crisis,
world trade has increased dramatically over the past decade, rising
almost threefold since 2002 to reach about $18.5 trillion in 2012.
Developing countries have assumed an increasing share in these trade
flows, and they now account for almost half of global exports.
And yet, data at the regional level revealed that developing
countries' integration into the global economy is characterised by wide
variations in performance, with East Asia continuing to dominate these
flows of merchandise.
Increased demand in developing (especially middle-income) countries,
paired with a fragmentation of production processes, has resulted in a
rapid increase in South-South trade, the report said.
Trade patterns across different categories of products, and across
economic sectors, were also examined in the publication.
The past decade has seen an overall increase in the importance of
primary products in world trade, prompted by a surge in demand in
emerging markets and by a consequent rise in commodity prices. Notably,
the energy-related sector is the largest (and fastest-growing) in terms
of value of trade. It now accounts for about a fifth of world trade.
The report noted that the dependence of many developing countries on
exports of natural resources and other commodities makes them
particularly vulnerable to price movements in international markets.
Despite these countries' efforts to diversify, the export basket of many
developing - and particularly low-income - countries remained tied to
unprocessed products that have lower technological content and value
addition and therefore limited growth potential.
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