Commerce international

In Africa, primary goods (defined as everything except manufactured products) accounted for 76% of merchandise exports in 2023, with fuels making up 37% of this. Developing Asia and Oceania relied much less on primary goods exports (26%) while for developing Americas it was just over half. Among the three developing regions, developing Asia and Oceania recorded the lowest proportion of food exports (5%), far behind developing America (25%) and developing Africa (14%).

In 2023, the general downturn in the value of world merchandise exports was strongly driven by fuel price decreases. Fuels exports plunged by more than 23%, with a 12% decrease in agricultural raw materials. Ores, metals, precious stones and non-monetary gold dropped by 3.1% and manufactured goods by 1.2%. Only the category grouping all food items registered a modest increase of 1.2%.

In 2023, developing economies in Asia and Oceania recorded a merchandise trade surplus of 13% of the value of exports, driven by high exports of manufactured goods. For the group of developing economies of the Americas , positive trade balances in food, agricultural raw materials, and ores, metals, precious stones and non-monetary gold largely offset the negative trade balance in manufacturing, leading toa trade deficit of 0.4%. However, in Africa, high imports of manufactured products and a negative balance in food and agricultural raw materials could not be offset by trade surpluses in fuels and in ores, metals, precious stones and non-monetary gold, resulting in a negative 14% trade balance.