Geneva, 20 October 2010 -- UNCTADstat, a new free online database offering a single entry point to UNCTAD´s vast repository of statistics, is being launched today, World Statistics Day.
By harmonizing and incorporating all UNCTAD´s online statistical databases, UNCTADstat will serve as an integrated platform for extracting and analyzing data on development, trade, investment, and related issues.
The site will be continuously updated and enriched so that it offers not only long historical time series but also the most recent data. UNCTADstat will cover individual countries, regions, economic and trade groupings, and the world at large.
Among the topics covered are:
- International merchandise trade, including data breakdowns of exports and imports by partners and products;
- International trade in services;
- Economic trends;
- Foreign direct investment (FDI);
- External financial resources, including migrants´ remittances, development assistance, external debt, and international reserves;
- Commodity prices, updated monthly;
- Population and labour force; and
- Maritime transport.
Other topics, new tables, and indicators will be added over time.
UNCTADstat is intended to provide a statistical background against which users may address issues related to trade, investment, development, and economic growth. Among the topics of current concern for which it offers useful information are speculation in commodities markets; the global financial crisis with the severe decline of international trade that started to recover from the second quarter of 2009 to the second half of 2010; and the recent shifting in the balance of developing countries´ inward financial flows from Official Development Assistance (ODA) towards more foreign direct investment and workers´ remittances.
Commenting on World Statistics Day, UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi said strategies for establishing peace, well-being, and security in the world "cannot be elaborated without statistics highlighting long-standing and emerging development issues. Each bit of data, each figure is a piece of a ´statistical jigsaw puzzle´ aiming to give us a measured representation of our world. However, there are as yet too many holes in the puzzle."
UNCTADstat is a major contribution by UNCTAD to filling in the puzzle.
UNCTADstat is accessible at https://unctadstat.unctad.org.
Any questions can be addressed to statistics@unctad.org.
