Measuring Digital Trade – session 68

What is digital trade? What action can countries take to measure, monitor, and respond to the challenges of digital trade?

Digital technologies have made it increasingly feasible for buyers and sellers to place and receive orders globally. They enable the remote delivery of services directly into businesses and homes. Digitalization is changing how products are purchased and delivered. Yet, it remains largely invisible in macroeconomic statistics.

This session introduces you to the newly released IMF-OECD-UNCTAD-WTO Handbook on Measuring Digital Trade. Its goal is to help statistical compilers across the world to address policymakers’ demands for better statistics on digital trade, and to ensure that developing economies are not left behind. Focusing on two key criteria – digital ordering and digital delivery across borders – the Handbook clarifies the definition of digital trade, reviews best data sources, and presents advances by countries in the measurement of digital trade.