World Economic and Social Survey 2010

The report launched on 29 June notes that getting ‘back on track’ will require significant reforms in global economic governance and new thinking to put the world on a more sustainable path of development. Overcoming the serious weaknesses exposed by the global economic crisis will not be easy and will require a major overhaul of the machinery for international finance, aid and trade. This year’s report looks at the prospects for post-crisis global development and concludes that a major rebalancing of the global economy is needed to make it sustainable.

For more information: http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/policy/wess-2010.shtml

Millennium Development Goals Report 2010

The report was launched in New York by the Secretary-General on 23 June 2010 and presents the yearly assessment of global progress towards the MDGs. The world continues to make advances towards the MDGs, despite the global economic downturn, but the rate of improvement remains too slow and countries must step up their efforts if the MDGs are to be achieved by their target date of 2015.

The world has made huge strides in reducing extreme poverty, tackling HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, and boosting access to clean drinking water, but is still lagging in other critical areas, such as improving maternal health and increasing access to decent sanitation.

For more information: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mdg/Default.aspx

Statistical compilations

Monthly Bulletin of Statistics and MBS Online

The bulletin presents current economic and social statistics for more than 200 countries and territories of the world. It contains over 50 tables of monthly and/or annual and quarterly data on a variety of subjects illustrating important economic trends and developments, including population, prices, employment and earnings, energy, manufacturing, transport, construction, international merchandise trade and finance.

Vol. LXIV – No. 5, May 2010

Quarterly features in this issue:

12. Earnings in manufacturing, by sex

33. Construction of new buildings

38. Total exports and imports by regions: volume and unit value indices and terms of trade

For more information: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mbs

System of National Accounts 2008

This publication is the comprehensive statistical framework for economic statistics that provides a consistent and flexible set of macroeconomic accounts for policymaking, analysis and research. It has been produced and is released under the auspices of the United Nations, the European Commission, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group.

It represents an update, mandated by the United Nations Statistical Commission in 2003, of the System of National Accounts, 1993 (1993 SNA), which was produced under the joint responsibility of the same five organizations. Like earlier editions, the 2008 SNA reflects the evolving needs of its users, new developments in the economic environment and advances in methodological research. The 2008 SNA is the international statistical standards for national accounting and provides the methodological basis for improving the international comparability of national accounts data.

For more information: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/nationalaccount/sna2008.asp

Population and Vital Statistics Report

This issue of the report presents data for countries or areas on population size (total, male, and female) from the latest available census, estimated total population size for 2007 or 2008 (the later available year), and the number and rate of vital events (live births, deaths, and infant deaths) for the latest available year within the past 15 years (1994-2008).

These data are presented as reported by national statistical authorities to the Demographic Yearbook of DESA’s Statistics Division. This issue also presents data for the world and its major areas and regions on estimated population size for both 2007 and 2008. These estimates were prepared by DESA’s Population Division.

For more information: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/vitstats/

2009 International Trade Statistics Yearbook, Volume I – Trade by Country

The 2009 International Trade Statistics Yearbook, Volume I – Trade by Country provides an overview of the international merchandise trade in 2009 and detailed information on the trade performance for numerous countries up to the year 2009.

For more information: http://comtrade.un.org/pb/

Discussion papers

Monthly Briefing on the World Economic Situation and Prospects

The June issue highlights the main messages of the World Economic Situation and Prospects – Update as of mid-2010 and stresses that while the world economy continues to rebound from a deep crisis, the recovery remains uneven, weak and fragile. The briefing also emphasizes that the recovery is still mainly driven by government stimulus measures and that a too early withdrawal of stimulus could risk taking steam out of the recovery.

For more information: http://www.un.org/esa/policy/publications/dpad_wespmbn.html

Websites

Expansion of the 2010 World Population and Housing Census Programme Website

The website is a resource centre for promoting international exchange and sharing of census-related knowledge and information and monitors progress in the implementation of the Programme. The resource centre serves as a repository of documents on international census guidelines as well as on national methodology and best practices in census taking. The website has been enhanced this month to provide more detailed methodological information on selected topics.

To browse: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/census2010.htm