International Trade Data

Following two consecutive quarters of decline, global trade in goods and services rebounded between January and March 2023. But prospects for the rest of the year are bleak.

Geopolitical tensions, high energy prices, rising interest rates and persistent inflation are expected to constrain global trade next year.

The annual Handbook of Statistics provides timely and reliable data on a wide range of economic and trade indicators so policymakers can take evidence-based decisions.

UNCTAD reflects on the past two years of the pandemic to derive valuable lessons for the future.

By Alessandro Nicita, Ralf Peters and Carlos Razo, UNCTAD

​The United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation is annually observed on September 12.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in 2015: "The pursuit of happiness is serious business". Nowadays this "business" is carefully measured and is used as a barometer of life quality. In fact, many argue that "happiness" combines to give a better picture of human wellbeing than do other individual indicators, such as, income, poverty, education, health or good government.

Estimates of global international trade for 2014 are published today jointly with WTO. These statistics cover annual and quarterly merchandise and services transactions - up to Q4 2014. Seasonally adjusted quarterly statistics are also available for the volume of international merchandise commerce.

According to preliminary estimates by UNCTAD and WTO, in the third quarter of 2014, world exports of services grew by 4.7% compared with the same quarter of the previous year (balance-of-payments basis, current prices).

​According to preliminary estimates by UNCTAD and WTO, world exports of services rose by 7%, in the second quarter of 2014, as compared with the same quarter of the year before (balance-of-payments basis, current prices).