HANDBOOK OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT STATISTIC RELEASED BY UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT

Press Release
TAD/1809

HANDBOOK OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT STATISTIC RELEASED BY UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT

GENEVA, 19 January (UNCTAD) -- Data on world trade, including trade balances, commodity shares, balance of payments, financial flows and exports and imports can be found in the 1994 edition of the Handbook on Trade and Development Statistics just issued by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The 511-page Handbook provides an integrated treatment of development and interrelated issues, and is probably the most comprehensive single volume of detailed analytical data on developing countries and their role in the world economy. In grouping the statistical tables, UNCTAD has paid particular attention to relevance and ease of interpretation, using regional classifications in some contexts and economic classifications in other cases in order to reveal structural differences among developing countries.

The Handbook is divided into seven parts, and comprises an annex as well. As in previous years, Part One details the value, growth and shares of world trade as well as trade balances and intra-trade by region. Part Two focuses on volume, unit value, terms of trade indices and price indices for primary commodities and manufacturers. Parts Three and Four focus mainly on the network and structure of world trade in terms of such factors as commodity shares, concentration and diversification indices. Part Five addresses the balance of payments, financial flows and indebtedness. Part Six contains a range of economic and social indicators of development. Part Seven presents an update of data on three special topics, dealing respectively with import penetration, export and import unit value indices and data on countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States as well as the Baltic States. The Annex gives detailed information on the world trade network, on 21 regions of origin and destination, on total exports and on 10 commodity categories.

In this latest edition of the Handbook, some tables have been revised and more regional groupings have been introduced. A few tables which were included in previous issues have been omitted. The information contained in those tables is, for the most part, available in other publications of UNCTAD or other international agencies. Some additional data, notably on services, have been incorporated. The Handbook has always complemented other more general publications of the United Nations, such as the Yearbook of International Trade Statistics and the Statistical Yearbook, as well as more specific series such as the Commodity Yearbook and the World Investment Report published by UNCTAD.

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