International trade

In Africa, primary goods (defined as everything except manufactured products) accounted for 76 per cent of merchandise exports in 2023, with fuels making up 37 per cent of this. Developing Asia and Oceania relied much less on primary goods exports (26 per cent) 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 per cent), far behind developing America (25 per cent) and developing Africa (14 per cent).

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 per cent, with a 12 per cent decrease in agricultural raw materials. Ores, metals, precious stones and non-monetary gold dropped by 3.1 per cent and manufactured goods by 1.2 per cent. Only the category grouping all food items registered a modest increase of 1.2 per cent.

In 2023, developing economies in Asia and Oceania recorded a merchandise trade surplus of 13 per cent 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 per cent. 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 per cent trade balance.