presented in the Appendix to this paper). On average, the share of the top 5 export products in total exports increased by about 7 percentage points for the resource-rich group of countries during the commodity boom period, which represents a proportional increase of 9.4 percent. The Herfindahl index, another useful indicator of concentration of exports, also shows an average increase in concentration for the resource-rich group of countries while for the resource-poor group, the change was statistically insignificant (Figure 7).

Figure 7: Average diversification trends during the commodity boom.

Figure 8: Services trade trends during the commodity boom.

<!-- Start of picture text --> Changes in Diversification Performance During the Commodity Boo Changes in Share of Services Trade during the Commodity Boom<br>Confidence Intervals for Resource Poor & Resource Rich Confidence Intervals for Resource Poor & Resource Rich<br>.6<br>.1<br>.4<br>0<br>.2<br>0 -.1<br>-.2<br>-.2<br>Resource Poor Resource Rich<br>Share of Top 5 Products<br>Number of Products -.3<br>Herfindahl Index<br>Resource Poor Resource Rich<br>Proportional Change<br>Proportional Change<br><!-- End of picture text --> Source: Authors’ calculations based on Comtrade. Source: Authors’ calculations based on WDI.

Concentration among resource-rich economies in ECA during the commodity boom has also meant a reduction in the importance of services exports in overall exports. On average, during the commodity boom, the share of services exports dropped by about 6 percentage points among resource-rich economies, which implies a proportional reduction of about 25 percent. For the resource-poor economies, the same share remained largely unchanged when compared to the first half of the decade, as shown in Figure 8.<sup>7</sup>

# **Country-Specific Product Diversification Statistics**

The average trends in terms of diversification discussed above, however, mask substantial heterogeneity. Among the resource rich, the share of the 5 most important export products in total exports has risen in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia, but fallen in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. In Russia, for example, the most diversified economy in the region, the top 5 products accounted for 54.5 percent of total exports in the period 2002/03 but accounted for almost 70 percent in 2010/11. Over the same period, the number of products exported by Russia dropped from 3565 to 3104.<sup>8</sup> Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, on the other hand, managed to decrease dependence on their top 5 export products, from 91 and 59 percent to 80 and 51 percent, respectively. Among the relatively resource poor economies, a moderate process of diversification is evidenced by decreases in the share of the top 5 export products in total exports and by increases in the number of products exported when comparing 2002/03 with 2006/07. Coinciding with the world trade collapse, these trends have been at least partially reversed toward the end of the decade. According to this indicator, Ukraine and Moldova show

> 7 Unfortunately, data availability constraints for services trade prevent us from analyzing export diversification trends within services products.

> 8 A product is an export category defined at the 6 digit level disaggregation of the HS classification.

8