Global trade growth may slow down in Q1 of current year: WTO

Global trade growth may slow down further in the first quarter of the current year, according to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

WTO’s latest World Trade Outlook Indicator (WTOI), released on Tuesday, made this prediction.

“Trade weakness is likely to extend into the first quarter of 2019,” said a press statement of the WTO. “The simultaneous decline of several trade-related indicators should put policy makers on guard for a sharper slowdown should the current trade tensions remain unresolved.”

“The most recent WTOI reading of 96.3 is the weakest since March 2010 and below the baseline value of 100 for the index signalling below-trend trade expansion into the first quarter, ” the press statement added.

“Weakness in the overall index was driven by steep declines in the component indices, which appear to be under pressure from heightened trade tensions,” it further added.

According to the latest WTOI, indices for export orders (95.3), international air freight (96.8), automobile production and sales (92.5), electronic components (88.7) and agricultural raw materials (94.3) have shown “the strongest deviations from trend, approaching or surpassing previous lows since the financial crisis.”

Only the index for container port throughput remained relatively buoyant at 100.3, according to the WTO statement.