World - Merchandise imports from low- and middle-income economies outside region (% of total merchandise imports)

Merchandise imports from low- and middle-income economies outside region (% of total merchandise imports) in World was 30.29 as of 2020. Its highest value over the past 60 years was 30.29 in 2020, while its lowest value was 12.75 in 1988.

Definition: Merchandise imports from low- and middle-income economies outside region are the sum of merchandise imports by the reporting economy from other low- and middle-income economies in other World Bank regions according to the World Bank classification of economies. Data are expressed as a percentage of total merchandise imports by the economy. Data are computed only if at least half of the economies in the partner country group had non-missing data.

Source: World Bank staff estimates based data from International Monetary Fund's Direction of Trade database.

See also:

Year Value
1960 15.98
1961 15.25
1962 15.50
1963 15.53
1964 15.69
1965 15.28
1966 15.55
1967 14.86
1968 14.67
1969 14.41
1970 13.84
1971 13.33
1972 13.18
1973 13.89
1974 16.84
1975 15.79
1976 16.24
1977 16.65
1978 15.50
1979 16.34
1980 16.67
1981 14.91
1982 15.31
1983 15.65
1984 15.76
1985 15.57
1986 12.78
1987 12.80
1988 12.75
1989 13.45
1990 13.55
1991 13.87
1992 14.63
1993 16.74
1994 17.19
1995 17.27
1996 18.09
1997 18.48
1998 18.22
1999 19.02
2000 20.67
2001 21.09
2002 21.61
2003 22.32
2004 23.14
2005 24.52
2006 25.59
2007 25.99
2008 27.09
2009 27.13
2010 28.54
2011 28.66
2012 29.25
2013 28.65
2014 29.01
2015 29.43
2016 29.24
2017 29.91
2018 30.02
2019 30.08
2020 30.29

Development Relevance: Although global integration has increased, low- and middle-income economies still face trade barriers when accessing other markets.

Limitations and Exceptions: Data on exports and imports are from the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Direction of Trade database and should be broadly consistent with data from other sources, such as the United Nations Statistics Division's Commodity Trade (Comtrade) database. All high-income economies and major low- and middle-income economies report trade data to the IMF on a timely basis, covering about 85 percent of trade for recent years. Trade data for less timely reporters and for countries that do not report are estimated using reports of trading partner countries. Therefore, data on trade between developing and high-income economies should be generally complete. But trade flows between many low- and middle-income economies - particularly those in Sub-Saharan Africa - are not well recorded, and the value of trade among low- and middle-income economies may be understated.

Aggregation method: Weighted average

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Private Sector & Trade Indicators

Sub-Topic: Imports