São Paulo – Global exports of products in the information and communication technology sector totalled US$ 1.8 trillion in 2011, growth of 4% over the previous year, according to a study disclosed on Tuesday (29) by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad). The organisation evaluates that the growth was boosted by emerging nations in Asia, which answer to US$ 1.2 trillion in sector foreign sales, or 64% of the total.
For calculation, the Unctad took into consideration products like mobile phones, notebooks, tablets, integrated circuits and also parts used by the industry. The sector, according to the UN agency, answers to 11% of world exports.
China is the main exporter of these products, with the equivalent to US$ 508 billion in foreign sales in 2011. Unctad informs that the expansion of Asia in this area is boosted by trade of intermediate goods between the countries in the region, which house different links of the productive chain.
This multinational production, according to the organisation, has significantly expanded South-South trade, that is, trade between developing nations, which currently represents 40% of the sector global flow. Around 80% of the products in the sector that are imported by developing nations are made in other emerging nations.
But, if in Asia exports rose, in Latin America and Africa they dropped in 2011. In the case of the developed economies, sector foreign sales have dropped 5% since 2000. These countries, however, remain as the main importers of finished products in the sector.
In terms of imports, the global flow totalled US$ 1.95 trillion in 2011, growth of 3.77% in comparison with 2010. Mobile phones answer to the largest share of finished items, with US$ 174 billion.
Portable computers, including tablets, generated imports of US$ 137 billion in 2011. Algeria, according to the Unctad, was one of the nations that recorded double digit growth in demand that year.
*Translated by Mark Ament