The latest “Global Trade Outlook and Statistics” report was released by the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The volume of world merchandise trade is expected to increase by 2.6% in 2024 and 3.3% in 2025 after falling 1.2 per cent in 2023.
The High energy prices and inflation continued to weigh heavily on demand for manufactured goods.
It is resulting in a 1.2% decline in world merchandise trade volume for 2023.
The decline was larger in value terms, with merchandise exports down 5% to USD 24.01 trillion.
Services trade were more upbeat, with commercial services exports up 9% to USD 7.54 trillion.
Global GDP growth will remain mostly stable over the next two years at 2.6% in 2024 and 2.7% in 2025, after slowing to 2.7% in 2023 from 3.1 per cent in 2022.