International Statistics

Commodities & Products

• International Grains Council 
  Grain markets report.

   

• 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 
  Links to 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."

   

Development

• 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 
  Subnational, spatially explicit, poverty data sets. These are available for selected proxy measures of poverty, at global and national scales. 
  

   

• OECD Aid Statistics 
  Statistics and reports on aid and other resource flows to developing countries and countries in transition and related matters. 
  

   

• United Nations Development Programme (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.

   

Finance/Investment

• 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."

   

Labor

• 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.

   

• Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking 
  Reports include country profiles.

Trade

• 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."

   

• 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. Free registration required.

   

• 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 – the LPI allow for comparisons across 150 countries."

   

• UNCTAD Handbook of Statistics Online 
  Data on international merchandise trade and international trade in services.

   

• 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.

Sources are drawn from an excellent guide produced by the University Libraries of the University of Maryland.