United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

UNCTAD is a permanent intergovernmental body established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1964. UNCTAD monitors international trade patterns, and aims to help developing economies access the benefits of the globalized economy more fairly and effectively. The statistics division of UNCTAD publishes data on various topics such as international trade, investment patterns in goods and services, economic trends, foreign direct investment, external finance resources, populations and labor force, commodities etc.

Data source and availability

Data from UNCTAD and the related metadata is available here- http://unctadstat.unctad.org/EN/Index.html

This data is compiled in accordance with the UNCTAD statistics handbook that is published annually. Data is published by UNCTAD annually. Commodity price data is released on a monthly basis. The trade matrix is updated twice a year, in May and September and trade indicator data is updated in June and October. The FDI data is updated every July. All data is presented in current US dollars.

The export and import data published by UNCTAD are not symmetrical in all cases. This is because of the following reasons,

• Time of recording: It takes time to transport the goods. If the goods were shipped in December and arrived in January, the exports will be recorded in last year and imports will be in current year.
• Valuation: Imports are normally valued by adding insurance and freight to the value of the goods, but exports are not (only value of the goods). Therefore, normally, imports are always higher than exports
• Coverage, inclusion / exclusion of certain goods: Countries have different treatment on the inclusion and exclusion of goods (even though there is an international recommendation for this).
• Partner country attribution: The known exports destination at the time of exportation may not be where the goods go finally. The famous example is trade among Canada - USA - Mexico. The final destination of Mexican exports are sometimes unknown, so recording USA as destination, may be misleading, if the final destination is Canada (or vice-versa). However, Canada would record imports from Mexico as the country of origin.

 

In certain cases the FDI data is negative. This is because data on FDI flows are presented on net basis (capital transactions' credits less debits between direct investors and their foreign affiliates). Net decreases in assets or net increases in liabilities are recorded as credits (positive), while net increases in assets or net decreases in liabilities are recorded as debits (negative). Hence, FDI flows with a negative sign indicate that at least one of the three components of FDI is negative and not offset by positive amounts of the remaining components. These are called reverse investment or disinvestment.

Series available

Sr. no	Series	Description
1	Trade trends data	Volume growth rates of mechandise exports and imports;  Total trade and share of merchandise trade Total trade growth rates of merchandise trade Trade and  growth rates by service-category Exports and import totals and growth rates of services (available for BPM5 and BPM6) Goods and services, exports and imports totals (available for BPM5 and BPM6)
2	Merchandise trade matrix	This table presents merchandise trade by trading partner and product based on SITC, Rev.3 commodity classification (the most detailed level is two digit), expressed in thousands of dollars. In addition, data are also summarized by geographical region and economic grouping, for both reporting country and its trading partner, and by product grouping
3	Service trade data	This table provides the latest available figures on quarterly services exports and imports of individual countries, in millions of dollars. Data are available for total services and four main sub-categories: goods-related services, transport, travel and other services. Commercial services, which exclude government goods and services but cover all other categories, are presented as a memo item. Relevant year-on-year growth rates are also shown.   The quarterly trade in services statistics presented follow the IMF Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual, Sixth Edition (BPM6) classification.    The statistics presented are the result of the common work of UNCTAD, World Trade Organization (WTO) and International Trade Center (ITC).
4	Goods and services trade balance indicators	This table is a compilation of statistics of trade in goods and services as reported in the Balance of Payments. The conceptual framework used for the compilation is based on the IMF Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual, Sixth Edition(BPM6).
5	Most favored nation (MFN) and effectively applied import tariff rates on non-agricultural and non-fuel products, annual, 1988 - 2014	The tariff rate applied to imports based on the MFN rate. Broken down by Manufactured goods, ores, and metals; ores and metals; manufactured goods; chemical products; machinery and transport equipment; and other manufactured goods. The same exists for effectively applied rates.
6	Gross domestic Product	GDP and GDP per capita
7	Balance of payments	This table provides information on the current account net, expressed in millions of dollars and as percentages of GDP.
8	Exchange rates	There are three exchange rate series of interest: Nominal Effective Exchange Rate: The nominal effective exchange rate against a basket of currencies; Real Effective Exchange Rate based on CPI: a real effective exchange rate index in 2005 and based on CPI; and Real Effective Exchange Rates deflated by GDP.
9	Inflation rates	This table provides information on consumer price indices (CPI) with base year 2000 and 2005 and, in addition, annual growth rate indicator.
10	Foreign Direct Investments	This table contains information on foreign direct investment (FDI) inward and outward flows and stock, expressed in millions of dollars. These figures correspond to the Statistical Annexes of the UNCTAD
11	Migrant's remittances	This table presents time series on receipts and payments of personal remittances in millions of dollars. These data are also shown as percentage of exports (receipts) and imports (payments) of goods and services, and as percentage of GDP.
12	Population	This table provides estimates from 1950 to 2015 and projections from 2016 to 2050 (Medium Variant), of total population and urban population, expressed in thousands and as a percentage of total population, respectively.
13	Labor force	Labour force by sex (total and female), and broken down by Agriculture sector and all sectors. Available in both absolute and as a percentage of female labour force.
14	Commodity Prices	Not by country, but by commodity. This table has UNCTAD free-market commodity price indices are Laspeyres-type with the base year 2000.
15	Share of ICT goods as a % of total trade	This table contains the two Core Indicators on International trade defined by the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development. The first of these Core Indicators is the share of ICT goods imports as a percentage of total imports, while the second Core Indicator is the share of ICT goods exports as a percentage of total exports.
16	ICT producing sector core indicators, annual,	This table contains statistics on two core indicators of the ICT producing sector: the proportion (%) of total business sector workforce involved in the ICT sector, and value added in the ICT sector as a percentage of total business sector value added.
17	Values and shares of creative goods in trade (export and import)	This table presents exports and imports of creative goods by individual country, geographical region and economic grouping, expressed in millions of dollars and broken down by individual trading partner or trading group. Furthermore, data are presented also as percentage of world (both as economy and trading partner), total products, and region.
18	Concentration index of creative goods	This table provides information on concentration indices of exports and imports of creative goods.
19	International trade in related services: Royalties and license fees)	In the context of trade in services related to creative economy, this table presents exports and imports of royalties and license fees (including their sub-components), for individual countries, expressed in millions of dollars and as percentages of a country's total services trade.
20	International trade in related services: Computer and information, annual,	In the context of trade in services related to creative economy, this table presents exports and imports of computer and information services (including their sub-components), for individual countries, expressed in millions of dollars and as percentages of a country's total services trade.
21	Merchant fleet by flag of registration and type of ship annual	This table shows statistics on the international maritime transport. It contains data on the size of the world merchant fleet by flag of registration and by type of ship. Data are presented in thousands of dead-weight tons (DWT). The table presents also, for each region or country 1) its share in the world fleet, and 2) the share of a ship-type in its fleet.
22	Ship scrapping	This table shows estimates of the merchant fleet demolished between 1 January and 31 December of a given year. Only available between 2014-2015
23	World seaborne trade	This table shows data on the world seaborne trade by types of cargo, by country groups and by regions. Data are presented in millions of tons.

Series used in EconDash

Series Name	Definition	Source	Units
BOP (Percentage of Gross Domestic Product)	Balance of Payments as a percent of GDP	UNCTAD	Percentage
Number of products (Exports)	A count of products exported by a country	UNCTAD	Unit
Number of Products (Imports)	A count of products imported by a country	UNCTAD	Unit
Concentration Index (Exports)	An index of concentrations of products exported; a zero indicates many products, a 1 indicates few products	UNCTAD	Index
Concentration Index (Imports)	An index of concentrations of products imported; a zero indicates many products, a 1 indicates few products	UNCTAD	Index
Diversification Index (Exports)	An index of diversification of goods exported relative to the world; a 1 indicates greater divergence from the world pattern; a 0 indicates little divergence from the world pattern	UNCTAD	Index
Diversification Index (Imports)	An index of diversification of goods imported relative to the world; a 1 indicates greater divergence from the world pattern; a 0 indicates little divergence from the world pattern	UNCTAD	Index
Real effective exchange rate indices (GDP deflator based)	Real Effective Exchange Rate deflated by GDP with 2005 as the base year	UNCTAD	Index (Base 2005)
Real effective exchange rate (CPI based)	Real Effective Exchange Rate deflated by CPI; with 2005 as the base year	UNCTAD	Index (Base 2005)
Nominal Effective Exchange Rate	Nominal Effective Exchange based on 2000 dollars	UNCTAD	Index (Base 2000)

Series used in IFs 

DataDict 720

Table	Group	Definition	Source	Last IFs Update	UsedInPreprocessor	Years
SeriesXFDIInwardFlows	Economic	Foreign direct investment, inward flows	UNCTAD STAT website	2011/12	No
SeriesXFDIInwardStock	Economic	Foreign direct investment, inward stock	UNCTAD STAT website	2011/12	No
SeriesXFDIOutwardFlows	Economic	Foreign direct investment, outward flows	UNCTAD STAT website	2011/12	No
SeriesXFDIOutwardStock	Economic	Foreign direct investment, outward stock	UNCTAD STAT website	2011/12	No

Instructions for Pulling Raw Data

1. Go to http://unctadstat.unctad.org/
2. Navigate to the data center page
3. In the data center bring up the series you wish to collect.
4. Click “Economy” and then check all the boxes using the top left check mark
5. Click show table
6. Download the csv version of the data; the excel version of this data is excel 3 Version locked and cannot be used