​UNCTAD´s flagship Trade and Development Report (TDR), which now has been issued annually for more than 30 years, foresaw the mounting influence of globalization on the economies of developing countries, warned of the dangers of unregulated financial flows and volatile exchange rates, and consistently argued, against the free-market orthodoxy of the 1980s and 1990s, that governments have important roles to play in helping national economies achieve steady, long-term progress.
 
A publication launched today at UNCTAD XIII, titled "Trade and Development Report, : Three Decades of Thinking Development," traces the history of the TDR, highlighting its assistance to the world’s poorer countries by proposing policies that harness global forces to achieve economic progress and higher living standards for these countries’ populations.
 
Often ahead of the curve in predicting economic trends, the Report, which has been referred to as the “encyclopaedia of development thinking”, warned countries such as Mexico and Thailand about the potential dangers of rapidly opening up their capital accounts, and brought attention to the threat to economic and social stability from growing levels of inequality.
 
In emphasizing the importance of external environment to development, the Report in a way anticipated the notion of globalization. It abandoned the dichotomy between short- and long-term economic issues, and opted for a holistic view of development looking at policies related to employment, trade, investment, debt and finance.

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