Trade trends during the last three years have been greatly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. During 2020 the economic disruptions brought about by COVID-19 resulted in a decline of international trade in goods and services. However as global demand resumed international trade strongly rebounded in 2021 and further increased during 2022. Overall the value of global trade is expected to be about 25 per cent higher in 2022 than it was in 2019. A substantial part of the increase in the value of trade during the last two years can be explained by rising commodity prices and more recently by general inflation. Trade volumes grew to a smaller extent. Even so the steady increase in the volume of international trade since early 2021 indicates a robust global demand for traded goods.

This publication is structured into two parts. The first part presents a short-term overview of the status of international trade using preliminary statistics on merchandise trade up to the third quarter of 2020. The second part provides illustrative statistics on international trade in goods and services covering the medium term. The second part is divided into two sections. Section 1 provides trade statistics at various levels of aggregation illustrating the evolution of trade across economic sectors and geographic regions. Section 2 presents some of the most used trade indicators at the country level to illustrate trade performance across countries.

This annual publication monitors the trends of international trade in goods and services in the medium term. The series is part of a larger effort by UNCTAD to analyse trade-related issues of particular importance for developing countries.