Trade statistics

International trade volumes

International trade volumes stood at $25tn in 2022 (WTO), and continues to grow:

Source: WTO

Relative split between trade in goods, and in services

Annual value of international trade in goods is $22 trillion, 4x larger than trade in services.

Source: https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/ditctab2023d1_en.pdf / UNCTAD secretariat calculations based on COMTRADE and UNCTADStat data.

Relative split of trade between developing and developed nations

Trade between developing countries and regions- known as “South-South trade”- is growing rapidly. In the past couple of decades, its value has grown almost tenfold, from USD 600 billion in 1995 to USD 5.3 trillion in 2021. Trade between developing countries has increased by an average annual rate of 9.8% since 2000. During the same period, world trade grew at a slower 5.5%.

Source: Global Economy and Development at Brookings

South-South trade corridors

The breakdown of primary trading corridors in the South-South category is shown below:

Source: https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/ditctab2023d1_en.pdf / UNCTAD secretariat calculations based on COMTRADE and UNCTADStat data.

Goods trade by sector

Breakdown per industry sector shown below:

Source: https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/ditctab2023d1_en.pdf / UNCTAD secretariat calculations based on COMTRADE and UNCTADStat data.