COMMODITY YEARBOOK 1995 PUBLISHED BY UNCTAD

30 January 1996

Press Release
TAD/1811

COMMODITY YEARBOOK 1995 PUBLISHED BY UNCTAD

19960130 GENEVA, 26 January (UNCTAD) -- The Commodity Yearbook, 1995, the principal statistical publication in the commodity field of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), has just been published. It presents, in one volume, comprehensive country-specific statistical series not easily available elsewhere in a manner designed to facilitate meaningful interpretation.

The 1995 428-page twelfth edition of the Commodity Yearbook is divided into three parts and an annex. Part I contains summary tables giving aggregate trade values and shares, by country, for primary commodities, food products, agricultural raw materials, minerals, ores and metals, and for fuels. Tables relating to the 18 commodities covered by the Integrated Programme for Commodities, as a group, as well as tables listing the principal exporters and importers of selected commodities, are also included.

Statistics on selected agricultural commodities, broken down into food products and agricultural raw materials, are provided in part II of the Yearbook. Data on selected minerals, ores and metals is presented in part III. Instability indices and trends in monthly market prices for selected primary commodities and special studies are contained in the annex. The explanatory notes and table of contents are presented in both English and French.

The Yearbook provides detailed data for production, trade and consumption in selected agricultural primary commodities and in minerals, ores and metals up to 1993. The 1995 edition again shows the shifting patterns of commodity trade among developed countries, among developing countries and between the two categories. Information on the share of the three leading commodities in total exports by developing country has been updated. Tables concerning changing patterns of commodity production through processing of selected primary commodities have also been updated. Free market prices of selected primary commodities are given for the period 1983-1994.

Whenever possible, the Yearbook presents data in a manner designed to facilitate meaningful interpretation, through the use of specific country groupings, rank orderings, percentage shares and graphs. Although designed to provide background information for use in international commodity discussions and negotiations carried out in UNCTAD, the Yearbook is also a valuable tool for researchers in the international, public and private sectors with an interest in international commodity-policy issues.

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