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Statistiques des échanges internationaux et de la balance des paiements

Handbook on Measuring Digital Trade

 

28 July 2023 - Digital technologies are transforming virtually every aspect of the economy, and international trade is no exception. Businesses and households make increasing use of digital ordering. Many services that traditionally required proximity between producers and consumers are now traded at a distance. Online platforms are playing an increasingly important role in matching supply with demand and facilitating economic transactions.

Digitalisation is changing how products are purchased and delivered, yet traditional international trade statistics still focus almost exclusively on what is being traded and who is involved.

In response to growing demand for coherent and comparable data on digital trade, the OECD, WTO and IMF produced the first edition of the Handbook on Measuring Digital Trade in 2019. The Handbook formalised for the first time a statistical definition of digital trade which focuses on the nature of the transaction: “digital trade is all international trade that is digitally ordered and/or digitally delivered”.  

The conceptual framework for digital trade

Conceptual framework for digital trade
Source: IMF, OECD, UNCTAD and WTO (2023)

Source: IMF, OECD, UNCTAD and WTO (2023)

Building on the first edition, the IMF, OECD, UNCTAD and WTO have produced a second edition of the Handbook on Measuring Digital Trade, published in 2023. While leaving the fundamental measurement framework unchanged, the second edition:

  • Provides clarifications on the concepts and definitions related to digital trade, and to the guidelines on how to operationalise them.

  • Offers extensive compilation guidance based on recent efforts in both developed and developing economies, covering a variety of relevant survey and non-survey sources.

  • Puts forward a proposed reporting template.

The Handbook provides a consistent measurement framework to guide compilers in their efforts to measure digital trade. While further research and empirical testing will be needed to improve and refine the compilation approaches, the well-established conceptual framework constitutes the basis for the compilation of statistics on digital trade which are internationally comparable and consistent with the broader economic accounts.

The Handbook also provides the foundation for an active programme of technical assistance and statistical capacity-building, by which the four partner organisations, IMF, OECD, UNCTAD and WTO can support statistical compilers as they seek to measure, monitor, and respond to the challenges of measuring digital trade.

 

Download the Handbook

Handbook on Measuring Digital Trade, second edition

 

Handbook on Measuring Digital Trade, second edition (IMF, OECD, UNCTAD and WTO)

English | العربية 

Forthcoming versions in French and Spanish.

 

For comments, suggestions or additions to the Handbook please contact SDD.Servstat@oecd.org.

 

 

  

Partner Organisations

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

 

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

 

World Trade Organization (WTO)

  

 

Related work

Handbook on Measuring Digital Trade, first edition (PDF) (OECD, WTO and IMF)

OECD Going Digital

 

Measuring E-commerce and the Digital Economy (UNCTAD)

 

   OECD Handbook on Compiling Digital Supply and Use Tables

 

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