The Trade and Development Report, launched in 1981, is issued every year for the annual session of the Trade and Development Board. The reports analyses current economic trends and major policy issues of international concern, and makes suggestions for addressing these issues at various levels.
Trade and Development Report 2020 warns that talk of a “K”-shaped recovery is already pointing to the prospect of an even more unequal future, with a “v-shaped” recovery for the wealthy and a struggle for everyone else. Building on long-standing research, UNCTAD worries that polarization is now hard-wired into the hyperglobalized growth model in both developed and developing countries. It argues that tackling this problem must go beyond calls to “leave no one behind” and look instead at how policy choices pick winners and threaten to block a more inclusive recovery.