- Home
- A-Z Publications
- United Nations Trade and Development Report
United Nations Trade and Development Report
1 - 20 of 41 results
-
-
Trade and Development Report 2020
Language: EnglishPublication Date: October 2020More LessDrawing on the ideas and proposals presented in previous editions of the Report, this year’s Report analyses the economic impact of the Covid-19 (coronavirus) global pandemic and possible responses that could be both effective and inclusive. It examines different recovery scenarios and, in particular, highlights the danger of a lost decade, addresses immediate difficulties facing developing countries as they well as some of the underlying conditions that, if left unaddressed, will prevent a better recovery. It also discusses some of the institutional changes needed at the international level to bolster recovery and transition to a more socially caring and environmentally sustainable global economy – a transition that the world needed before the pandemic but has become ever more pressing.
-
-
-
Trade and Development Report 2019
Language: EnglishPublication Date: September 2019More LessThis report examines different aspects of the nature and role of international trade in the era of hyperglobalization and considers related policy challenges that will need to be addressed if trade is to contribute to a more stable and inclusive global economic order. It provides authoritative data and analysis on trade, investment, finance and technology. Beyond tailored analysis and policy recommendations, such research also generates global standards that govern responsible sovereign lending and borrowing, investment, entrepreneurship, competition and consumer protection and trade rules.
-
-
-
Trade and Development Report 2018
Language: EnglishPublication Date: January 2019More LessThis flagship publication examines different aspects of the nature and role of international trade in the era of hyperglobalization and considers related policy challenges that will need to be addressed if trade is to contribute to a more stable and inclusive global economic order. Research provides authoritative data and analysis on trade, investment, finance and technology. UNCTAD offers solutions to the major challenges facing developing countries, particularly the poorest and most vulnerable nations. Beyond tailored analysis and policy recommendations, UNCTAD research also generates global standards that govern responsible sovereign lending and borrowing, investment, entrepreneurship, competition and consumer protection and trade rules.
-
-
-
Trade and Development Report 2017
Language: EnglishPublication Date: September 2017More LessThe Trade and Development Report (TDR), launched in 1981, is issued every year for the annual session of the Trade and Development Board. The Report analyses current economic trends and major policy issues of international concern, and makes suggestions for addressing these issues at various levels. This year’s Report focuses on the challenges for achieving inclusive growth in an era of austerity, hyper globalization and financial fragility. It includes chapters on robotics, gender and employment, finance and inequality, and the growing market power of non-financial corporations. It concludes by calling for Global New Deal, and the sorts of policy components it must include in light of the analyses provided.
-
-
-
Trade and Development Report 2016
Language: EnglishPublication Date: September 2016More LessDevelopment is a transformational process, combining a series of interactive and cumulative linkages to create a virtuous circle of enhanced resource mobilization, higher incomes, expanding markets and investment, leading to more and better jobs. Such a structural transformation requires selective government policies to shift a country's productive structure towards activities and sectors with higher productivity, better paid jobs and greater technological potential ‒ what is commonly called "industrial policies". The Trade and Development Report (TDR) 2016 highlights the central role of industrialization, given the higher productivity of manufactures in relation to other sectors. Manufactures can also generate strong cross-sectoral linkages (e.g. backward, forward, income and knowledge linkages) and complementarities that enhance productivity and employment growth in the primary and tertiary sectors. Countries that have been able to narrow the productivity and income gap with developed countries are those (mostly in Asia) that managed to expand investment, employment and productivity in their manufacturing sector in a sustainable way, which contrasts with other countries and regions affected by "stalled industrialization" or "premature de-industrialization". Successful structural transformation requires a comprehensive policy approach. This includes strategic policies for international trade, pro-growth macroeconomic policies to ensure high levels of aggregate demand and investment and a stable and competitive exchange rate, policies in support of the profits-investment nexus to provide finance for structural transformation, and closing tax loopholes through fiscal and regulatory measures that would bring greater transparency to corporate decision making and finance public expenditure that provides an enabling context for production upgrading and economic diversification.
-
-
-
Trade and Development Report 2015
Language: EnglishPublication Date: December 2015More LessThe Trade and Development Report (TDR), launched in 1981, is issued every year for the annual session of the Trade and Development Board. The Report analyses current economic trends and major policy issues of international concern, and makes suggestions for addressing these issues at various levels.
-
-
-
Trade and development report 2014
Language: EnglishPublication Date: October 2014More LessThe 2014 edition reviews recent trends in the world economy, examining the consistency and sustainability of the economic policies currently followed. It addresses the evolution and current conditions of the policy space needed for implementing growth-enhancing and inclusive development strategies. It discusses how countries can better manage capital flows in order to expand their policy space for pursuing development strategies. It looks at policy space as depending not only on the existing rules and commitments taken in international agreements, but also on the possibility of mobilizing resources for financing industrial policies, investment and growth. It argues that fiscal space is a key aspect of policy space, and that developing countries need to address loss of revenue stemming from illicit financial flows, tax havens and inadequate taxation of extractive industries.
-
-
-
Trade and development report 2013
Language: EnglishPublication Date: December 2013More LessThe shape of the world economy has changed significantly over the last two decades, with a rising importance of several developing countries and regions as additional drivers of global economic growth. The main objective of Trade and Development Report 2013 is to assess the systemic changes in the underlying structure of the world economy and to analyse the resulting policy challenges. Particular attention will be paid to a plausible scenario in which developing and transition countries must design their development strategies in a context of a prolonged period of sluggish growth in developed countries. The Report’s main message will be that in order to achieve high, sustained and inclusive growth, developing and transition economies will need to move towards a new form of development, away from seeking net-export advantages on the back of global imbalances. Rather, the new context calls for strengthening domestic income and demand and reinvigorating regional and South-South coordination and economic linkages.
-
-
-
Trade and Development Report 2012
Language: EnglishPublication Date: May 2013More LessIn the context of the ongoing fallout from the global financial crisis, income distribution is back to the centre of economic analysis and policies. This publication explores the linkages between income distribution, growth and development. It analyzes the evolution of income inequality over the last decades in different regions and groups of countries. It also examines the explanations given for the widespread rise of inequality. The report questions the thesis that rising inequality is a necessary condition for successful development. Based on a comprehensive theory of economic policy elaborated in former reports, this book argues that only inclusive development policies create the conditions for sustainable and rapid growth.
-
-
-
Trade and Development Report 1981-2011
Language: EnglishPublication Date: August 2012More LessThis publication identifies the key issues in the global economy and the design of development strategies addressed in the Trade and Development Report over the past three decades, tracing them through its various editions. It shows how ideas, opinions and proposals expressed in the Trade and Development Report, and the analytical approaches used, differed from those of “the mainstream” and their evolution in response to new challenges. This review revisits the concept of interdependence and explains the approach of the reports to macroeconomic and financial policies in both developed and developing countries. It also summarizes development policy failures and successes over the years.
-
-
-
Trade and Development Report 2011
Language: EnglishPublication Date: January 2012More LessReforms of financial regulations are progressing slowly and only at the national level, monetary system reform is limited. After an interlude that some considered as a return to Keynesianism, the orientation of macroeconomic policy, especially fiscal policy, is back to business as usual. This will hinder a sustained recovery of the world economy and open the door for new financial crises. Thus, the rethinking of policies and reshaping the financial and monetary system remain an urgent task. This publication makes concrete proposals on how, and in which priority areas, to advance with strengthening regulation of the financial sector and commodity markets, reform of the international monetary system, and the reorientation of fiscal policy.
-
-
-
Trade and Development Report 2010
Language: EnglishPublication Date: October 2010More LessThe Report 2010 focuses on the need to make employment creation a priority in economic policy. Unemployment is the most pressing social and economic problem of our time, not least because, especially in developing countries, it is closely related to poverty. The fallout from the global crisis has exacerbated what were already sluggish labour markets in most countries even before the crisis erupted. It also warns that a premature withdrawal of macroeconomic stimulus measures to expand demand in developed countries may trigger a deflationary spiral in the global economy, with attendant slumps in growth and employment. The publication draws attention to the importance of strengthening the macroeconomic policy framework to promote sustainable growth and employment creation in both developed and developing countries, and makes recommendations for a reorientation of macroeconomic policies and institution building aimed at strengthening domestic demand.
-
-
-
Trade and Development Report 2009
Language: EnglishPublication Date: October 2010More LessThe Trade and Development Report 2009, subtitled Responding to the Global Crisis - Climate Change Mitigation and Development” addresses the main issues of global economic outlook and short-term policy response to the financial and economic crisis, international monetary reform to complement stricter financial regulation and climate change mitigation as a process of structural change. The report analyzes global economic prospects within the framework of the current economic and financial crisis. It also heeds the short-term fiscal, financial and monetary policies that were adopted in response to the impacts of the 2008-2009 crisis. It also looks at the question of how increased efforts aimed at climate change mitigation can be combined with forward-looking development strategies and rapid growth in developing countries.
-
-
-
Trade and Development Report 2008
Language: EnglishPublication Date: September 2008More LessThe Trade and Development Report 2008, subtitled Commodity Prices, Capital Flows and the Financing of Investment” highlights the paradox that the “capital poor” developing world is exporting capital to the “capital rich” developed countries. The Report suggests shifting the focus in financial policies from households putting more money aside and imports of foreign savings, to the reinvestment of profits and credit creation through the domestic banking system.
-
-
-
Trade and Development Report 2007
Language: EnglishPublication Date: April 2007More LessThe current edition of the Report anticipates a fifth consecutive year of overall output growth and continued strong demand for primary commodities contributing to an overall increase in per capita gross domestic product in developing countries. The main risk to this positive scenario, the Report warns, is that a major recession in the United States could sharply curtail exports from China and India, which are setting the pace for this growth. The report says regional cooperation can help reduce the vulnerability of developing nations to current account imbalances such as that of the US, and also reduce their vulnerability to major shifts in exchange rates caused by speculative capital flows.
-
-
-
Trade and Development Report 2005
Language: EnglishPublication Date: October 2006More LessThe world economy is still expanding, but there are serious risks of a setback. Several populous Asian countries, in particular China and India, have emerged as new engines of economic growth. Thanks to their vigorous expansion and their appetite for natural resources, many of their developing-country trade partners have reaped windfall profits from rising commodity prices and from surging demand for intermediate products. Some dark clouds are looming over this rather rosy horizon. Oil prices are historically high and place a huge burden on many developing countries. And there has been no multilateral action that might gently defuse global current-account imbalances. The Trade and Development Report recommends that international initiatives to alleviate poverty and reach the MDGs should not ignore the importance of a smooth unwinding of global economic imbalances that will allow the Asian Miracle to continue, along with its positive repercussions for other less wealthy countries.
-
-
-
Trade and Development Report 2004
Language: EnglishPublication Date: October 2006More LessThe current edition of the Trade and Development Report focuses on the global economic recovery currently underway. The Report raises questions about its considerable downside risks stemming from oil prices and exchange rates and the fact that both the sources and incidence of growth are unequally distributed around the globe. The TDR 2004 argues that, to enable developing countries to establish a virtuous interaction between external financing, domestic investment and export growth, a feasible development agenda has to be based on the concept of coherence. UNCTAD warns that attempts by many countries to keep their currencies undervalued could end up in competitive devaluations that could be disastrous for the world economy. UNCTAD suggests that changes in the exchange rate that imply deviation from purchasing-power parity should be governed by multilateral regulations.
-
-
-
Trade and Development Report 2006
Language: EnglishPublication Date: October 2006More LessSince 2002, world economic expansion has had a strong positive impact on growth and helped support progress towards the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Most developing countries have benefited from this growth momentum as a result of strong demand for their exports of primary commodities and, to an increasing extent, of manufactures. However, global economic imbalances continue to pose a risk to the outlook of the world economy. Much depends on the ability of developing countries to adopt more proactive policies in support of capital formation, structural change and technological upgrading, and on the latitude available to them in light of international rules and disciplines. The Trade and Development Report 2006 offers relevant ideas and general principles for designing macroeconomic, sectoral and trade policies that can help developing countries to succeed in today’s global economic environment.
-
-
-
Trade and Development Report 2003
Language: EnglishPublication Date: November 2003More LessTrade and Development Report 2003 offers a distinct perspective on global economic trends and prospects and raises some disturbing questions about the frail state of the trade-development nexus - particularly critical in the aftermath of Cancún. It traces the difficulties back to the surges in global trade and financial flows in the 1990s and warns that pushing liberalization at a time of sluggish global growth and unemployment runs the danger of rekindling mercantilist reactions in advanced countries and false expectations in developing countries.
-
-
-
Trade and Development Report 2002
Language: EnglishPublication Date: June 2002More LessThe Trade and Development Report 2002 (TDR 2002) analyzes trends and outlooks for the world economy and focuses on export dynamism and industrialization in developing countries. It demonstrates that, although integration into world trade is essential, it is not in itself sufficient for ensuring a country's development. The Report questions the conventional wisdom that export growth and foreign direct investment (FDI) automatically generate commensurate income gains. Why is it that developing countries are trading more, but earning relatively less? UNCTAD thinks they are competing among themselves to export similar labour-intensive manufacturing products to the same markets. It suggests that countries should move into higher-value exports by upgrading technology and improving productivity. What next for developing countries after Doha and Monterrey? And what will China's WTO accession mean for other developing countries - and for China itself? There are signs that a world economic recovery may be under way. If so, will it be sustained at a fast enough pace to benefit most developing countries? This would require a 3% growth rate in the industrial world - a rather unlikely prospect, predicts UNCTAD.
-