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WTO Lowers Trade Growth Forecast to 7-Year Low
The World Trade Organization now predicts global trade will expand only 1.7% this year, down from the 2.8% growth it forecast in April to the slowest pace since 2009.
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The World Trade Organization now predicts global trade will expand only 1.7% this year, down from the 2.8% growth it forecast in April to the slowest pace since 2009.
The group says the 39% cut reflects slowing activity in Brazil, China and the U.S. The outlook does not attribute any of the slowdown to the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union.
BBS News says the downwardly revised WTO guidance predicts that growth in international commerce will lag the expansion in global gross domestic product for the first time in 15 years. For decades trade has on average expanded about 1.5 times as much as global gross domestic product, BBC News points out. This year trade will grow only about 80% as much as GDP, according to the forecast.
WTO says the slowdown is especially ominous given the anti-globalization sentiment and the “misguided” protectionist policies it could generate.
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