News

Services sector remains hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, dropping to levels last seen in the 1990s, nowcasts from UNCTAD's 2020 Handbook of Statistics show.

The COVID-19 economic crisis is forecast to reverse years of painstaking development progress in education and nutrition, and to pull 32 million people back into extreme poverty.

A recent UNCTAD study identifies three ways smallholder farmers in the landlocked southeast Asian nation can boost earnings from their harvests.

Inequalities and vulnerabilities risk worsening long after a vaccine becomes available. UNCTAD charts a roadmap for a more inclusive and better recovery, emphasizing the need to reshape global production networks.

The pandemic has sent shockwaves through global maritime transport and laid the foundations for a transformed industry and associated supply chains. UNCTAD expects a return to growth in 2021

By Paul Akiwumi, Director for Africa and Least Developed Countries, UNCTAD

Gold accounts for 77% of the $40 billion worth of under invoiced extractive commodity exports from Africa, according to UNCTAD research. Diamonds represent 12% and platinum 6%.

Written by Sijia Sun and Alexandre Larouche-Maltais, Article No. 66 [UNCTAD Transport and Trade Facilitation Newsletter N°88 - Fourth Quarter 2020]

The government sees honey as a product that could help diversify the country’s oil-dependent economy and is working with UNCTAD and the European Union to improve production and boost exports.

By Paul Akiwumi, Director of Division for Africa and Least Developed Countries, UNCTAD