Research Guides: Online Sources of International Statistics: Economics and Development

International Grains Council
Grains market reports.
UN Comtrade Database
Searchable commodity trade statistics database.
UNCTAD Commodity Price Statistics (United Nations Conference on Trade Development)
"Monthly free-market prices and price indices starting in January 1960 for selected commodities that concern commodity-dependent countries. Price indices are provided for commodity groups (including food, tropical beverages, vegetable oilseeds and oils, agricultural raw materials, minerals, ores and metals), and for all groups in current dollars and SDRs."
UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)
Economic indicators by country including statistics on manufacturing.
USDA Foreign Agricultural Service: Commodities and Products
US and international data.
USGS Minerals Information: Commodity Statistics and Information
"Statistics and information on the worldwide supply of, demand for, and flow of minerals and materials essential to the U.S. economy, the national security, and protection of the environment."

Center for International Development (CID) at Harvard University
Data depository which includes the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Database, Trade Openness Indicators, Sources of Slow Growth in African Economies, Natural Resource Abundance and Economic Growth, plus geography, education, agricultural and disease datasets (most in Excel format.)
Global Distribution of Poverty
Poverty mapping project of the Center for International Earth Science Information Network. Subnational, spatially explicit, poverty data sets. These are available for selected proxy measures of poverty, at global and national scales.
Millennium Development Goals Indicators
This site presents the official data, definitions, methodologies and sources for more than 60 indicators to measure progress towards the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Keyword searchable.
United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
Human Development Report, Human Development Index, Gender-Related Development Index, Gender Empowerment Measure, Trends in Economic Performance, Financial Inflows and Outflows, Human Profile and Index, North-South Gaps, etc.
World Bank Development Data
Includes World Development Reports, quick reference tables, Gas and Diesel Price Databank, Global Development Finance, and selected tables from World Development Indicators.

Bank for International Settlements (BIS)
Publications which can be downloaded include the Annual Report, "Quarterly Review: International Banking and Financial Market Developments," "BIS Consolidated International Banking Statistics," and "Joint BIS-IMF-OECD-World Bank Statistics on External Debt."
Bureau of Economic Analysis International Accounts Data
Statistics on balances and payments, imports and exports, investment position, foreign direct investment in the US, and US direct investment abroad.
Ease of Doing Business
World Bank site that ranks economies based on having a regulatory environment that is conducive to the operation of business.
Federal Reserve Board
Current and historical data on foreign exchange rates.
International Monetary Fund
The most recent "World Economic Outlook," Staff Country Reports, Annual Report, IMF Working Papers, Summary of Disbursements and Repayments, and IMF Surveys.
Penn World Table
National accounts economic time series for many countries from the Center for International Comparisons at the University of Pennsylvania.
UNCTAD Foreign Direct Investment Database
"The FDI database presents aggregate inflows, outflows, inward stocks and outward stocks of foreign direct investment (FDI) for 196 reporting economies in an interactive format."
UNCTAD World Investment Directory
"Detailed statistics on foreign direct investment (FDI) and operations of transnational corporations (TNCs) in selected countries."

Bureau of International Labor Affairs
Reports from the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs. Includes reports on child labor, forced labor, human trafficking, workers' rights, employment and social protection, business responsibility and supply chains.
International Labor Comparisons (ILC)
Bureau of Labor Statistics data series.
International Labour Organisation (ILO) Labour Statistics
International labor statistics for many nations from 1988 -, including an International Labour Migration database.

Bureau of Labor Statistics Import/Export Price Indexes
"The International Price Program produces Import Price Indexes (MPI) and Export Price Indexes (XPI) containing data on changes in the prices of nonmilitary goods and services traded between the U.S. and the rest of the world."
European Commission - Trade
Main economic indicators, GDP by sector, trade in goods, trade in commercial services, foreign direct investment, imports and exports with the world, ranking, trade balance.
Export.gov
Access to the U.S. Commercial Service Market Research Library: Country Commercial Guides, Market Updates, Industry Overviews, Multilateral Development Bank Reports, Best Markets, Industry/Regional Reports, and agricultural goods market research reports.
Foreign Trade Statistics
US Census Bureau. Country-commodity trade data, trade balances with partner countries, and monthly lists of top trading partners.
International Trade Administration
Office of Trade and Economic Analysis site has links to information to the US Industry and Trade Outlook, US Foreign Trade Highlights, and Global Data Links.
Trade Logistics Performance Index (LPI)
World Bank site. "The LPI is an interactive benchmarking tool created to help countries identify the challenges and opportunities they face in their performance on trade logistics and what they can do to improve their performance ï¿½ the LPI allow for comparisons across 150 countries."
TRAINS on the Internet
UNCTAD-TRAINS (TRade Analysis and INformation System) is a comprehensive computerized information system at the HS-based tariff line level covering tariff, para-tariff and non-tariff measures as well as import flows by origin for more than 140 countries.(Last update = 2004)
UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development)
"Being the United Nations' focal point for the integrated treatment of trade and development and the interrelated issues in the areas of finance, technology, investment and sustainable development, UNCTAD compiles, validates and processes a wide range of data collected from national and international sources. "
US International Trade Commission Interactive Tariff and Trade DataWeb
Data sets from multilateral, country and regional sources going back to 1989. Can be searched by HTS items, SIC, NAICS, and SITC codes. Access is free, but users must create an account.
World Trade Organization
Trade statistics site with up-to-date aggregate developments in world trade.