ABSTRACT
The Growth of World Output - historical perspective, post-war trends in world output, the 1973-74 Oil Crisis, the 1979-80 oil crisis, the 1990-93 downturn, the East Asian financial crisis. The growth of world trade over the period since 1945 has brought major changes in the commodity composition of world trade. The share or world trade that is accounted for by food is also strongly affected by fluctuations in world food prices. The share or raw materials in world trade has fallen from 13% in 1955 to just under 3% in 1995. Fuels have been the only category in the primary commodities sector whose share in world trade rose albeit for a brief period of time. Geographically, the most important change has been the increase in the share of world trade accounted for by the developing countries and the decline in the share accounted for by the advanced industrialised countries.
