Latin America & Caribbean: Manufactures exports (% of merchandise exports)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2025, Latin America & Caribbean's manufactures exports (% of merchandise exports) rose 2.85 percentage points on 2024 (from 46.44% to 49.29%).

Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1995 to 2024), the average change was −0.21 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 1.42 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 2.2 standard deviations above that average, so it was unusually large compared with the rest of the record.

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 9.11 percentage points in 1986 and the biggest yearly fall was 3.88 percentage points in 1980. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2016 to 2025 the straight-line trend is downward, about 0.32 percentage points a year. A straight line explains 31% of the movement over 10 observed years.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

How it compares

See how every economy compares in the full ranking.

What this measures

Manufactures comprise commodities in SITC (Rev. 3) sections 5 (chemicals), 6 (basic manufactures), 7 (machinery and transport equipment), and 8 (miscellaneous manufactured goods), excluding division 68 (non-ferrous metals). This indicator is expressed as a percentage of merchandise exports which is comprised of goods whose economic ownership is changed between a resident and a non-resident and that are not included in the following specific categories: goods under merchanting, non-monetary gold, and parts of travel, construction, and government goods and services n.i.e.

Limitations: Previous editions contained data based on the SITC revision 1. Data for earlier years in previous editions may differ because of the change in methodology. Concordance tables are available to convert data reported in one system to another.

Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a weighted average.

All 62 values

Manufactures exports (% of merchandise exports) in nearby economies

• Afghanistan — 4.77% (2019)
• Algeria — 5.82% (2024)
• Bahrain — 26.01% (2024)
• Egypt, Arab Rep. — 47.83% (2025)
• Iran, Islamic Rep. — 21.4% (2023)
• Iraq — 0.43% (2024)
• Israel — 86.81% (2025)
• Jordan — 72.1% (2024)
• Kuwait — 5.68% (2025)
• Lebanon

More private sector & trade data for Latin America & Caribbean

• Merchandise trade (% of GDP) — 44.2% (2025)
• Merchandise imports (current US$) — US$1.66 trillion (2025)
• Merchandise exports (current US$) — US$1.67 trillion (2025)
• Merchandise imports from economies in the Arab World (% of total merchandise imports) — 1.3% (2023)
• Merchandise imports from high-income economies (% of total merchandise imports) — 58.36% (2023)
• Merchandise imports from low- and middle-income economies outside region (% of total merchandise imports) — 28.18% (2023)
• Merchandise imports from low- and middle-income economies in East Asia & Pacific (% of total merchandise imports)

Reading data like this

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Questions people ask

What is Latin America & Caribbean's manufactures exports (% of merchandise exports)?

49.29% in 2025, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1962?

It is up 40.94 percentage points from 8.35% in 1962. The highest value was 56.28% in 1998 and the lowest 8.35% in 1962.

Is the latest change in manufactures exports (% of merchandise exports) unusual for Latin America & Caribbean?

In 2025, Latin America & Caribbean's manufactures exports (% of merchandise exports) rose 2.85 percentage points on 2024 (from 46.44% to 49.29%). Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1995 to 2024), the average change was −0.21 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 1.42 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 2.2 standard deviations above that average, so it was unusually large compared with the rest of the record.

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator TX.VAL.MANF.ZS.UN, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: Comtrade database, United Nations (UN), publisher: UN Statistics Division; World Integrated Trade Solution system (WITS); Staff estimates, World Bank (WB) Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

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