Commerce international

Seasonally adjusted world export volumes increased by 1.4% in the first quarter of 2026, broadly unchanged from the 1.4% growth recorded in the previous quarter.

In developing economies, export growth slowed to 1.4%, from 3.9% in Q4 2025, remaining positive.

In developed economies, exports increased by 1.1%, following a 0.4% contraction in the previous quarter, marking a return to positive export growth.

In 2024, the regions with the most diversified exports over products were Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean, as indicated by a product concentration index of exports of around 0.10. Western Asia and Northern Africa (0.27) was the region in which exports were most concentrated on few products, and Oceania (0.26) and Sub-Saharan Africa (0.22) were also relatively less diverse exporters. On a country basis, the top five least diversified exporters were (Micronesia (0.90), Marshall Islands (0.88), Iraq (0.87), Libya (0.86) and Nauru (0.84).

Looking at the geographic distribution of exports by product group, manufactured products have the highest concentration of global supply from a few exporting economies since 2005. In 2024, its market concentration index stood at 0.20. Fuels (0.15) and agricultural raw materials (0.14) ranked second and third, respectively. The index of ores, metals, precious stones and non-monetary gold has averaged 0.13 over the last 10 years. Food is the product group whose exports have been the most diversified over the last decade, showing an index score of 0.12 in 2024.

For the 2022–2024 average, Least Developed Countries (LDCs) recorded an overall Theil export concentration index of 5.14, well above 3.26 for other developing economies and 2.89 for developed economies. Higher Theil concentration indicates that LDCs' exports are less diversified than other countries.

Decomposition of the index shows that market concentration is the main driver of this pattern. LDCs’ market concentration index reached 3.27, compared with 2.27 in other developing economies and 2.08 in developed economies, indicating a strong reliance on a limited number of destination markets. Product concentration is also markedly higher in LDCs (1.87) than elsewhere (0.99 and 0.81), reflecting dependence on a narrow range of export products.

Overall, LDCs face a double diversification gap, across both products and markets, leaving their export earnings more exposed to external shocks.

In 2024, the terms of trade declined by 1.1% in developing economies driven by a 2.2% deterioration in developing economies Asia and Oceania. By contrast, developed economies saw a moderate gain of 0.6% from the previous year. 
Among developing regions, the most significant improvements were observed in developing Africa and developing Americas registering 4.7% and 2.9% increases, respectively. 
Least Developed Countries recorded the highest improvement with 5.1% increase compared to 2023. An improvement in the terms of trade means a country can obtain more imports for the same amount of exports, effectively increasing its real income and reducing economic strain.