Productive Capacities Index

UNCTAD’s Productive Capacities Index is a dynamic and practical tool to support developing countries in understanding the status of their productive capacity and how this can be improved.

The PCI covers 193 economies for the period 2000-2018. The set of productive capacities and their specific combinations are mapped across 46 indicators. This makes our PCI multidimensional in its analytical abilities.

Global transport cost dataset

To support evidence-based policymaking and research in the transport sector, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the World Bank have developed a Global Transport Costs dataset for International Trade.

In order to provide a more visual understanding of global transport costs related to international trade, an interactive map has been created to visualize the transport costs of individual commodities traded between two countries in 2016.

Handbook of Statistics 2020

The handbook usually presents a wide variety of statistics relevant to international trade and development for the preceding year. The coronavirus pandemic however transformed business as usual in 2020, increasing demand for up-to-date figures on the economic impacts. To anticipate the figures for the year of publication, the handbook has been supplemented by quarterly trade nowcasts which paint a picture of the decline that occurred in trade in both goods and services, with the figures still trending downwards at time of publication. These and other major trends in statistics relevant to international trade and development are depicted in UNCTAD's 2020 Handbook of Statistics.

How COVID-19 is changing the world:a statistical perspective

The coronavirus pandemic led to a 3% drop in global trade values in the first quarter of 2020. The downturn is expected to accelerate in the second quarter, according to UNCTAD forecasts, which project a quarter-on-quarter decline of 27%.

This report is a product of cooperation between the international statistics community and national statistical offices and systems around the world, coordinated by UNCTAD.

Gender and Trade

A new study by UNCTAD, UN Women and ILO examines the impact of trade agreements on gender equality and women's economic empowerment.

This Policy Brief was developed jointly by UNCTAD and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) under the WE EMPOWER – G7 programme funded by the European Union and jointly implemented with the International Labour Organization and UN Women.