This publication provides data on the country and area distribution of countries exports and imports as reported by themselves or by their partners. The quarterly issues cover data for the most recent six quarters and the latest year for 169 countries, and ten quarters and five years for the world and area tables.

This publication provides data on the country and area distribution of countries exports and imports as reported by themselves or by their partners. The quarterly issues cover data for the most recent six quarters and the latest year for 169 countries, and ten quarters and five years for the world and area tables.

International Financial Statistics provides a complete library of continuously updated international statistics on all aspects of international and domestic finance. The monthly print edition contains over 1,000 pages of statistical data in each issue. It reports, for most countries of the world, current data needed in the analysis of problems of international payments and of inflation and deflation, i.e., data on exchange rates, international liquidity, money and banking, interest rates, prices, production, international transactions, government accounts, and national accounts. Information is presented in country tables and in tables of area and world aggregates.

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 publication provides recommendations on the concepts, definitions, classifications, data sources, data compilation methods, approaches to data quality assessment, metadata and dissemination policies applicable in distributive trade statistics. The recommendations also cover some specific topics that have been identified as requiring additional guidance such as the treatment of informal sector units, compilation of indices of distributive trade and seasonal adjustment. The information is consistent with those issued in other fields of economic statistics and has been harmonized with the System of National Accounts 2008 (2008 SNA).

Asia proved to be remarkably resilient in the face of the global financial crisis, but why was its output performance stronger than that of other regions? The paper shows that better initial conditions—in the form of lower external and financial vulnerabilities—contributed significantly to Asia’s resilience. Key pre-crisis factors included moderate credit expansion, reliance on deposit funding, enhanced bank asset quality, reduced external financing, and improved current accounts. These improvements reflected the lessons from the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s, which helped reshape both public policies and private sector behavior. For example, several countries stepped up their use of macroprudential policies, well before they were recognized as an essential component of the financial stability toolkit. They also overhauled financial regulations and strengthened oversight of financial institutions, which helped reduce risk-taking by households and firms before the global financial crisis. Looking ahead, Asia is in the process of adjusting to more volatile external conditions and higher risk premiums. By drawing the right lessons from its pre-crisis experiences, Asia’s economies will be better equipped to address new risks associated with increased cross-border capital flows and greater integration with the rest of the world.