Library of freely accessible trade data resources

The Bank for International Settlements provides economic and financial indicators, incuding banking statistics, debt security statistics, derivative statistics, global liquidity indicators, credit statistics, debt service ratio, property prices, consumer prices, exchange rates, central bank policy rates, payments and financial market infrastructures.

FAOSTAT provides access to over 3 million time-series and cross-sectional data related to food and agriculture, including data on crops, fertilizers (by product), food supply, forestry production and trade, land use, live animals, livestock primary, production indices, and food security indicators. FAOSTAT contains data for 200 countries and more than 200 primary products and inputs in its core data set.

The International Grains Council (IGC) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to further international cooperation in grains trade; promote expansion, openness and fairness in the grains sector; and contribute to grain market stability and to enhance world food security. Grains, rice and oilseeds market conditions are monitored on a daily basis and made available through daily reports and web-based information services. Data monitored includes market information (price index) as well as export prices of grains (wheat, maize, barley, soyabeans, rice) and oilseeds, global supply and demand, freight rates, and five-year global projections.

ILOSTAT is a database operated by the ILO Department of Statistics which has data and metadata on labour statistics for over 200 countries or territories. The databases cover household income and expenditure statistics, economically active population, employment, unemployment, employment (or labour force) by detailed occupational group and sex, obtained from population censuses or labour force surveys, comparable employment and unemployment estimates, public sector employment, hours of work, wages, labour productivity and costs, labour income and inequality, social protection, the informal economy, as well as information on youth, women, migrant workers and volunteers.

The IMF's Climate Change Dashboard has multiple cross-border indicators that explore CO2 emissions related to production in one country and determine how much CO2 emissions are used to satisfy demand at home and abroad. It takes into account decisions made by multinational companies on where they locate their operations. These indicators include 1) CO2 emissions embodied in trade, 2) trade in environmental goods, 3) trade in low carbon technology products, and 4) several factors related to emissions resulting from direct investment.

The Direction of Trade Statistics (DOTS) presents the value of merchandise exports and imports as disaggregated according to a country's primary trading partners. Area and world aggregates are included in the display of trade flows between major areas of the world. Imports are reported on a cost, insurance, and freight (CIF) basis and exports are reported on a free on board (FOB) basis - with the exception of a few countries. (Missing or unavailable data has been replaced by estimates). Monthly and quarterly data are available starting from 1960 (annual data are available starting 1947).

International Financial Statistics (IFS) is a standard source of international statistics on all aspects of international and domestic finance. It reports, for most countries of the world, current data needed in the analysis of problems of international payments and of inflation and deflation, e.g. data on balance of payments, exchange rates, international liquidity, international banking, money and banking, interest rates, prices, production, international transactions, national accounts, and assets and liabilities.

ITU's World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database is the main source of global, and internationally comparable, telecommunication/ICT statistics. It includes time series for more than 140 indicators and around 200 economies. The data are collected directly from telecommunication regulatory agencies and/or ministries and national statistical offices by means of an annual questionnaire, and subsequently verified, harmonized and complemented by ITU. The statistics are used to track and benchmark the information society, to monitor the digital divide and to identify market potential and investment opportunities. Statistics available include fixed-telephone subscriptions, mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions, and percentage of individuals using the internet.

The Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC) is an online data visualization and distribution platform focused on the geography and dynamics of economic activities. The OEC data is predicated on both an Economic Complexity Index (ECI) and a Product Complexity Index (PCI). The ECI predicts important macroeconomic outcomes, including a country's level of income, economic growth, income inequality, and greenhouse gas emissions. It has also been estimated using diverse data sources, such as trade data, employment data, stock market data, and patent data. The PCI measures the complexity required to produce a product or engage in an economic activity.

The AMNE database presents detailed data on the activities of foreign affiliates in OECD countries (inward and outward activity of multinationals). The data indicate the increasing importance of foreign affiliates in the economies of host countries, particularly in production, employment, value added, research and development, labor compensation, exports. AMNE contains 17 variables* broken down by country of origin (inward investment) or location (outward investment) and by industrial sector for a large number of OECD countries. AMNE is based on data reported to OECD and Eurostat in the framework of annual surveys on the activities of foreign-controlled enterprises and foreign affiliates abroad controlled by residents of the compiling country (2005 - 2016). *The 17 variables include: Number of enterprises, Number of persons employed, Turnover, Number of employees, Production, Value added at factor cost, Personnel costs, Gross investment in tangible goods, Gross operating surplus, Exports of goods and services, Imports of goods and services, Intra-firm exports of goods and services, Intra-firm imports of goods and services, Total intramural R&D expenditure, Total number of R&D personnel, Technological payments (inward only), Technological receipts (inward only).

The ADIMA dataset includes 500 of the world's largest multinational enteprises (MNE), providing information such as where MNEs are located, how they operate, and where they pay taxes. The data is broken down according to four components: 1) a physical register offering a comprehensive view of each MNE and its subsidiaries, 2) a digital register showing all websites belonging to each MNE, 3) indicators providing harmonized data the global level, and 4) monitoring data identifying events like large company restructurings that can give early warnings of potential significant impacts on trade, GDP and FDI data.

The database provides data on grants or loans to countries and territories on the DAC List of official development assistance (ODA) and to multilateral agencies which are: (a) undertaken by the official sector; (b) with promotion of economic development and welfare as the main objective; (c) at concessional financial terms (if a loan, having a grant element of at least 25 per cent). In addition to financial flows, technical co-operation is included in aid. Grants, loans and credits for military purposes are excluded. Transfer payments to private individuals (e.g. pensions, reparations or insurance payouts) are in general not counted.

UN Comtrade is a repository of official international trade statistics and relevant analytical tables. The database is updated regularly with either new additions or revisions and span as far back as 1992. There are also other publications that have other datasets (e.g., historical data for select countries). UN Comtrade includes data on climate change indicators, trade statistics, value of imports and exports.

The INDSTAT database of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) contains time series data on employees, establishments, output, value added, wages and salaries for the period covering 2007 - 2011. The data are arranged at the 3- and 4-digit level of ISIC (Revision 3) pertaining to the manufacturing sector, which comprises 151 manufacturing categories.

The Energy Statistics Database of the UN Statistics Division (UNSD) contains comprehensive energy statistics on the production, trade, conversion and final consumption of primary and secondary; conventional and non-conventional; and new and renewable sources of energy. The Energy Statistics dataset, covering the period from 1990 onwards, is available at UNdata. For data prior to 1990, please refer to http://unstats.un.org/unsd/energy/edbase.htm.

The Environment Statistics Database of the UN Statistics Division (UNSD) contains selected water (e.g. intern flow, precipitation, fresh wat, wastewater, total population supplied by water supply industry) and waste (e.g., hazardous waste treated or disposed, hazardous waste recycled, waste incinerated, waste generated) statistics by country. Statistics on water and waste are based on official statistics supplied by national statistical offices and/or ministries of environment (or equivalent institutions) in countries in response to the biennial UNSD/UNEP Questionnaire on Environment Statistics. They were complemented by data on EU and OECD member and partner countries from Eurostat and OECD. The online database includes data starting in 1990.

Gender Info 2007 is a global database of gender statistics and indicators on a wide range of policy areas, including: population, families, health, education, work, and political participation. It can be used by governments, international organizations, advocacy groups, researchers and others in need of statistics for planning, analysis, advocacy and awareness-raising. Users will find in Gender Info an easy-to-use tool to shed light on gender issues through customizable tables, graphs and maps. It is an initiative of the United Nations Statistics Division, produced in collaboration with the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The United Nations Industrial Commodity Statistics Database provides annual statistics on the production of major industrial commodities by country (ores and minerals, electricity, gas, water; food products, beverages, tobacco, textiles, apparel and leather products; machinery and equipment; metal products). Data are provided in terms of physical quantities as well as monetary value. The online database includes dagta starting in 1995. Additional historical data is available on request, based on a different product list, for the years 1950-2003.

The National Accounts Estimates of Main Aggregates database consists of a complete and consistent set of time series, from 1970 onwards, of the main National Accounts aggregates of all UN Members States and other territories in the world for which National Accounts information is available. Its contents are based on the official data reported to UNSD through the annual National Accounts Questionnaire, supplemented with data estimates for any years and countries with incomplete or inconsistent information. Estimates are done when no official data are available. Data available include GDP by type of expenditure, Gross Value Added by kind of economic activity, GNI, annual per capita GDP and GNI, annual growth rates of GDP, annual shares in total GDP and total Gross Value added, and price trends.

The database contains data as far back as 1946, up to the year t-1, with data for most countries available from the 1970s. The database covers not only national accounts main aggregates such as gross domestic product, national income, saving, value added by industry and household and government consumption expenditure and its relationships, but also detailed statistics for institutional sectors (including the rest of the world), comprising the production account, the generation of income account, the allocation of primary income account, the secondary distribution of income account, the use of disposable income account, the capital account and the financial account, if they are compiled by countries.

The World Tourism Organization's Compendium of Tourism Statistics and Yearbook of Tourism Statistics provide comprehensive information on international tourism worldwide and offer a selection of the latest available statistics on "arrivals of non-resident tourists/visitors" and "tourism expenditure".

The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory Data contains data on greenhouse gas emissions covering the period from 1990 to the latest available year, to the extent the data have been provided. The GHG data contain information on anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of the following GHGs (carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), unspecified mix of HFCs and PFCs, sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) and nitrogen triflouride (NF3)) that are not controlled by the Montreal Protocol.

The World Bank's TCdata360 provides open data on trade and competitiveness. The site aggregates and visualizes data from multiple sources and presents it in tandem with other knowledge and resources. It currently features 2,400 indicators extrapolated from a collection of other data sources (including the WEF, WTO, ITC, OECD, and IMF). It includes multiple (trade) indicators related to trade outcomes, trade barriers, trade facilitation, e-trade, connectivity, competition and competition policy, etc.

The World Development Indicators (WDI) is the statistical benchmark that helps measure the progress of development. The WDI provides a comprehensive overview of development drawing on data from the World Bank and more than 30 partners. The World Development Indicators (WDI) publication is the World Bank's premier annual compilation of data about development. The complete WDI database includes more than 1,200 indicators.

The World Health Statistics of the World Health Organization (WHO) present the most recent health statistics for WHO Member States, including cause-specific mortality and morbidity, demographic and socioeconomic statistics, health equity monitor, health service coverage, health systems, mortality and global health estimates, risk factors, and selected infectious diseases.