UNCTAD eHandbook of Statistics

https://stats.unctad.org/handbook/

Last week UNCTAD released their new eHandbook of Statistics (2018). The eHandbook provides a wide range of statistics and indicators relevant to the analysis of international trade, investment, maritime transport and development. The eHandbook is a fully interactive tool, including maps and charts, that allows readers to directly access the data from the UNCTADstat Data Centre associated with each table or chart.

This year's edition includes, for the first time , short-term forecasts for a selection of key variables: the value of world merchandise exports, the value of world services exports, and world real gross domestic product. This innovation responds to an increased demand for up-to-date information to monitor global international trade, study the impact of economic or political developments, and guide policy responses. The presented forecasts are not derived from global macroeconomic models or exogenous scenarios on the future state of the global economy. They are applications of what is commonly referred to in the literature as 'nowcasts' or contemporaneous forecast: real-time evaluations of a variable based on a series of relevant and timely indicators. They are based on the latest data available in October 2018. A summary of the methodological approach applied is included in Calculation methods.