COTD = Chart of the Day

The automobile sector is a globally interconnected industry with a large economic footprint. The size of the sector’s gross output (that is, the sum of its value-added and intermediate consumption) is about 5.7 percent of global output, according to the World Input-Output Database (Timmer and others 2015). Vehicles and related parts are the world’s fifth-largest export product, accounting for about 8 percent of global goods exports in 2018 (Figure 1.1.1). The sector is also a major consumer of commodities, other manufactured products, and services: the vehicle industry is the second-largest consumer of steel and aluminum and demands significant amounts of copper, rubber, plastic, and electronics (Figure 1.1.2).  – IMF,  World Economic Outlook