In October 2009, January 2010 and June 2010, ITC released three Trade Map Factsheets entitled "Developing Country Exports Decline in 2009", "LDC Trade Recovery in 2009" and "LDCs Terms of Trade during Crisis and Recovery", monitoring the export performance during the quarters of 2009 compared to 2008, on developing countries and Least Developed Countries, in particular.

The first brief, released in October 2009, aims to provide a qualitative review of ITC Trade Map data available for the first 2 quarters of 2009. This includes establishing the impact of the decline in global trade on the exports of various groups of developing countries (e.g. least developed countries, small island developing states, etc), the composition of this decline with respect to changing commodity prices versus trade volumes, the significance of selected OECD and emerging economies in the decline and their significance to future export development in developing countries. Finally, the brief explores the importance of intra-regional trade to these developing economy groups.

The second brief, released in January 2010, aims to detail the recovery, in both value and volume terms, and related explanatory variables. First, it presents an overview of the extent of decline, based on ITC Trade Map data and confirmed by other, independent research efforts, followed by the extent of recovery to date. Second, trade performance in 2009 is analyzed at a disaggregated level, focusing on the most important product groups and trade partners. Third, potential explanatory variables for varying levels of export performance during the decline and recovery are explored.

While earlier Trade Map Factsheets have focused primarily on LDCs’ export performance before, during and after the financial crisis, it is also necessary to assess overall trade performance to understand more fully the impact of the crisis on LDCs.
This latest Trade Map factsheet, released in June 2010, provides an update on LDCs’ export recovery in terms of value and volume following the crisis, as well as examines the LDCs’ terms of trade performance between 2006 and 2009 and related considerations of vulnerability due to import and export composition.

Download these publications:

• Developing Country Exports Decline in 2009
  This Trade Map factsheet, published in in October 2009, shows that export values from LDCs to major importing countries had declined by over 43% compared to the first half of 2008, whereas global export values had declined by over 32% during the same period.
  Full release
  
  
  
• LDC Trade Recovery in 2009
  This second Trade Map factsheet, published in January 2010, aims to detail LDCs trade recovery in 2009, in both value and volume terms, and related explanatory variables.
  Full release
  
  
  
• LDCs Terms of Trade during Crisis and Recovery
  This latest Trade Map factsheet, published in June 2010, has two objectives: first, to determine whether LDCs, in either aggregate or individual terms, have seen an improvement or deterioration in their terms of trade in recent years; and second, to assess whether or not there have been significant differences between LDCs’ terms of trade evolution with emerging markets and developed economies.
  Full release