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International Yearbook of Industrial Statistics 2017

The International Yearbook of Industrial Statistics is one of UNIDO’s major statistical publications. It presents detailed, country-specific, business structure statistics. The Yearbook presents the annual figures on global manufacturing growth and structure. More current estimates are presented in the Quarterly Report on World Manufacturing Production. Statistics presented in the Yearbook are directly related to several indicators of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), especially SDG 9 covering industrialization.

Manufacturing production growth has been weak in recent years both in industrialized and developing and emerging industrial economies. Global prospects for manufacturing growth are also down: The potential impact on established world trade arrangements of the United Kingdom's referendum on continued EU membership as well as the presidential election in the United States have prompted considerable economic uncertainty in the world markets.   

Growth of manufacturing value added (MVA) in industrialized economies dropped to less than 1.0 percent in 2016. The MVA growth rate of China, the largest manufacturer in the world, dropped to 6.7 percent in 2016, compared to 7.1 percent in 2015. The combined growth of MVA of other emerging and developing economies was low, at 2.5 percent in 2016, particularly as a result of a production downturn in Latin American countries.  

The Yearbook expresses particular concern about the falling share of manufacturing to total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in least developed countries (LDCs) in Africa, indicating a premature de-industrialization of the region. Such trends pose a serious challenge to Sustainable Development Goal 9 target of doubling industry’s share of GDP in LDCs by 2030. 

The Yearbook suggests a falling share of wages and salaries in manufacturing value added in industrialized economies.  In many countries employees have been forced to accept lower pay or part-time jobs in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Despite this trend, wages and salaries had much higher share in the manufacturing value added of industrialized economies compared to developing economies. 

The Yearbook also presents the data by manufacturing sectors, with a particular focus on manufactured food products. Although less than 5.0 percent of the world’s population lives in the United States, it accounts for around 18.0 percent world food manufacturing. However, industrialized economies’ share of world food manufacturing is decreasing in favor of emerging industrial economies, such as China, Indonesia and India.


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