This World Economic Overview highlights the main changes in the world economy in the long run and how nations took part in it.

Trends over some forty years are featured in the overview: from 1960 to 2010 for GDP, and from 1967 to 2008 for international trade in goods and services.

The first part of the overview is dedicated to changes in the world ranking of economic and population weights as well as in the one of nations development levels.

The second part describes trade flows. It sets out the growing share of trade in goods and services in the world production along with trade balances and imbalances across nations. Trade in goods and services, reflecting and explaining global and national transformations, is observed in detail. On one side through the product structure evolution, on the other side through the changes in geographical breakdowns.

In the third part, specialization indicators in terms of comparative advantages are presented for about twenty major countries.