The Penn Library now provides access to two major statistics databases on international finance and trade: International Financial Statistics and UN Comtrade

International Financial Statistics is produced by the International Monetary Fund. IFS Online presents more than 32,000 annual, quarterly, and monthly times series from 1948 to the present and forecast to 2049 covering more than 200 countries, regions, and regional economic IGOs. For most countries of the world, IFS Online reports current data needed in the analysis of problems of international payments and of inflation and deflation, i.e., data on exchange rates, international liquidity, international banking, money and banking, interest rates, prices, production, international transactions, government accounts, and national accounts.

The IFS Online web interface permits browsing through topical directory trees, drilling down through the subject hierarchy, and selecting individual time series or multiple time periods. Data may be retrieved in comma separated value (CSV), Microsoft Excel, HTML, and tab-delimited file formats.

UN Comtrade, or United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database, presents annual international trade statistics gathered by the United Nations Statistics Division from more than 130 countries, 1962 to the present. Key data elements are reporting country, trading partner country, commodity, and trade flow. Commodities are classified according to SITC and the Harmonized System (HS), with the original data converted and stored in all the other classifications.

The UN Comtrade interface permits browsing and drilling down, and selecting individual time series or multiple time periods. Data may be retrieved in comma separated value (CSV) and Microsoft Excel-compatible file formats. Online charting is also provided.

For more information:
Kathleen Dreyer, Business Electronic Resources Librarian
Lauris Olson, Social Sciences Bibliographer