The Direction of Trade Statistics Online service provides data on the value of merchandise exports and imports between each country and all its trading partners. The database includes: total bilateral and multilateral exports and imports aggregated at national or regional group level; data from 1948 at monthly, quarterly, and annual frequencies.

The IMF’s principal statistical publication, International Financial Statistics (IFS) Online, is the standard source of international statistics on all aspects of international and domestic finance. For most countries, IFS Online reports data on balance of payments, international investment position, international liquidity, monetary and financial statistics, exchange rates, interest rates, prices, production, government accounts, national accounts, and population. Updated monthly.

A currency is a unit of exchange, facilitating the transfer of goods and services. It is one form of money, where money is anything that serves as a medium of exchange, a store of value, and a standard of value. A currency zone is a country or region in which a specific currency is the dominant medium of exchange. To facilitate trade between currency zones, there are exchange rates, which are the prices at which currencies (and the goods and services of individual currency zones) can be exchanged against each other. Currencies can be classified as either floating currencies or fixed currencies based on their exchange rate regime. In common usage, currency sometimes refers to only paper money, as in coins and currency, but this is misleading. Coins and paper money are both forms of currency. In most cases, each country has monopoly control over the supply and production of its own currency. Member countries of the European Union's Economic and Monetary Union are a notable exception to this rule, as they have c

What do the major states of Asia view as the emerging challenges in their immediate security environment as well as in the broader Asian region? What future security outcomes would make them believe that strategic stability had been achieved in the Asian continent? Central to the latter question is China and the path it will take to rise to superpower status. While all the major Asian states increasingly are both economically and politically engaged with China, doubts remain about China's long-term intentions. This volume discusses the military, diplomatic and economic measures being taken by the major Asian countries and Australia to establish a new framework for strategic stability. In the process, the contributors examine the global pressures that are impacting on these countries' security dilemmas and, from the perspective of these countries, the patterns of expected behaviour that China would have to fulfil for a regional security order to emerge in Asia.

This paper explores why increased aid flows require economic policymakers to confront some specific issues. Ensuring that increased aid promotes growth and reduces poverty is certainly the most important task. Empirical studies offer only mild support for aid-boosting growth. However, one study suggests that once one excludes the aid flows aimed at political and humanitarian goals, a positive net effect is observed for the remaining aid focused on economic objectives. This paper also outlines the roles to be played by development partners for making the aid being properly utilized for boosting growth.