Papua New Guinea: Merchandise exports to low- and middle-income economies outside region (% of total merchandise exports)

Key figures

Since 1969 it is up 0.52 percentage points from 0.4% in 1969. The World Bank has no value for 2 of the years in between; the chart leaves those gaps open rather than joining across them.

What the numbers say

In 2023, Papua New Guinea's merchandise exports to low- and middle-income economies outside region (% of total merchandise exports) rose 0.21 percentage points on 2022 (from 0.7% to 0.91%).

Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1990 to 2022), the average change was −0 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 1 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.2 standard deviations above that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 2.93 percentage points in 2003 and the biggest yearly fall was 1.54 percentage points in 2013. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2014 to 2023 there is no clear straight-line trend: a straight line explains 7% of the movement over 8 observed years, so the value is moving around more than it is heading anywhere.

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

How it compares

In 2023, Papua New Guinea had the 189th highest value of the 201 economies reporting that year. Higher is not always better: for some indicators the lowest value is the one to aim for. See the full ranking.

Closest to Papua New Guinea in the 2023 ranking

• Sint Maarten (Dutch part) — 185th of 201: 1.18%
• Montenegro — 186th of 201: 1.07%
• Barbados — 187th of 201: 0.98%
• Niger — 189th of 201: 0.91%
• Bhutan — 190th of 201: 0.87%
• Mongolia — 191st of 201: 0.72%

What this measures

Merchandise exports to low- and middle-income economies outside region are the sum of merchandise exports from the reporting economy to other low- and middle-income economies in other World Bank regions according to the World Bank classification of economies. Data are expressed as a percentage of total merchandise exports by the economy. Data are computed only if at least half of the economies in the partner country group had non-missing data.

Limitations: Data on exports and imports are from the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Direction of Trade database and should be broadly consistent with data from other sources, such as the United Nations Statistics Division's Commodity Trade (Comtrade) database. All high-income economies and major low- and middle-income economies report trade data to the IMF on a timely basis, covering about 85 percent of trade for recent years. Trade data for less timely reporters and for countries that do not report are estimated using reports of trading partner countries. Therefore, data on trade between developing and high-income economies should be generally complete.

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

All 53 values

Merchandise exports to low- and middle-income economies outside region (% of total merchandise exports) in nearby economies

• American Samoa — 25.27% (2023)
• Australia — 7.2% (2023)
• Brunei Darussalam — 1.62% (2023)
• Cambodia — 2.03% (2023)
• China — 20.53% (2023)
• Fiji — 0.11% (2023)
• French Polynesia — 0.15% (2022)

More private sector & trade data for Papua New Guinea

• Merchandise trade (% of GDP) — 62.04% (2025)
• Merchandise imports (current US$) — US$4.62 billion (2025)
• Merchandise exports (current US$) — US$15.54 billion (2025)
• Merchandise exports to high-income economies (% of total merchandise exports) — 69.25% (2023)
• Merchandise exports by the reporting economy, residual (% of total merchandise exports) — 0.000374% (2023)
• Merchandise exports by the reporting economy (current US$) — US$10.86 billion (2023)
• Merchandise imports from high-income economies (% of total merchandise imports) — 58.93% (2023)
• Merchandise imports from low- and middle-income economies outside region (% of total merchandise imports)

Reading data like this

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Questions people ask

What is Papua New Guinea's merchandise exports to low- and middle-income economies outside region (% of total merchandise exports)?

0.91% in 2023, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1969?

It is up 0.52 percentage points from 0.4% in 1969. The highest value was 5.5% in 2005 and the lowest 0.01% in 1977.

How does Papua New Guinea rank?

189th highest of 201 economies with data for 2023.

Is the latest change in merchandise exports to low- and middle-income economies outside region (% of total merchandise exports) unusual for Papua New Guinea?

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator TX.VAL.MRCH.OR.ZS, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: Staff estimates, World Bank (WB); Direction of Trade database, International Monetary Fund (IMF) 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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