The number of countries that depend on commodities has reached its highest level in 20 years, says a new UNCTAD report.

UNCTAD defines a country as dependent on commodities when these account for more than 60% of its total merchandise exports in value terms.

The State of Commodity Dependence Report 2019 shows commodity-dependent countries increased from 92 between 1998 and 2002 to 102 between 2013 and 2017.

More than half of the world’s countries (102 out of 189) and two thirds of developing countries are dependent on commodities, the report indicates.

“Given that commodity dependence often negatively impacts a country’s economic development, it is important and urgent to reduce it to make faster progress towards at( meeting the sustainable development goals,” UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi said.