Trade
Trade18 Oct 20265 min read

The World's Most Traded Good Is Still Oil — Until 2027

The world's most-cited trade ranking is now an accounting choice. The same publisher's two 2024 crude totals are $210bn apart — and one of them is physically impossible.

TQ
The Quant
⁦2026-W42⁩ edition
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In the 2025 customs record, integrated circuits became the world's most traded good: $1,270bn against crude oil's $957.6bn, a margin of $312bn (World's Top Exports report card). But dig a bit deeper into into when the crown changed hands from oil to chips and the data gives you three answers: 2024, 2025, or not yet — depending on which ledger you read, including two ledgers from the same publisher.

Twenty years ago there was no ambiguity. In 2005, crude exports were $755.5bn, 2.4 times the $315.4bn of chips (CEPII BACI). The two-decade convergence is real. The crossover date is not.

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