For information only - not an official document
UNIS/OUS/235
12 March 2014
Re-issued as received
VIENNA, 13 March (United Nations Industrial Development Organization) - Despite a slowdown due to the recent economic recession, the growth rate of manufacturing value added (MVA) of developing and emerging industrial economies over the last four years has been consistently higher than the growth rate of GDP, according to the International Yearbook of Industrial Statistics 2014 published today by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).
The annual growth rate of world MVA remained low at 1.7 per cent in 2013, reflecting the fact that the recovery in industrialized countries only started to gear up in the second half of the year. The annual growth rate of MVA for the industrialized countries was slightly negative, while for the developing and emerging industrial economies, it increased by 5.2 per cent.
MVA growth in different regions has been characterized by a high degree of production volatility due to market instability. Several developing economies have witnessed fluctuating interest rates, a rise in inflation and increased production costs which have had a detrimental effect on manufacturing growth.
The rate of MVA growth for developing and emerging industrial economies was restrained by weaker demand in industrialized countries during the years of economic recession.
Developing economies' share of world MVA increased to 35.5 per cent in 2013. However, the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), which have 11.6 per cent of the world's population, contributed only 0.5 per cent of world MVA. Many LDCs are either land-locked or are small island economies with known geographical constraints compounded by a lack of infrastructure that limits their role in international trade.
In the years ahead, it is likely that more countries will join the group of industrialized economies which will mean that the industrialized economies' share of world MVA will eventually increase. In recent years, Bahrain, Malaysia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, among others, were included in the industrialized economies group.
The International Yearbook of Industrial Statistics 2014 also shows that the industrialization process has driven a significant structural change within manufacturing. According to recent estimates, medium-high and high technology (MHT) sectors now account for more than 75 per cent of MVA in industrialized economies, but traditional agro-industrial sectors still dominate manufacturing in LDCs. The technological gap (the difference between MHT goods' share of total manufacturing output for industrialized and LDC economies) has further widened in last ten years.
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The International Yearbook of Industrial Statistics is a major statistical publication of UNIDO. It presents detailed, country-specific, business structure statistics, which provide empirical evidence for formulating industrial policy and carrying out comparative analysis of structural change and productivity.
UNIDO maintains an international industrial statistics database covering mining and quarrying, manufacturing and the international trade of manufactured goods.
The International Yearbook of Industrial Statistics 2014 is a joint publication of UNIDO and Edward Elgar Publishing Limited. ISBN 978-1-78347-389-2
The current edition marks the 20th anniversary of the publication as per the mandate of the UN Statistics Commission.
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For further information on the report, please contact:
Shyam
Upadhyaya
UNIDO Chief Statistician
Email: stat[at]unido.org
