COVID-19 Pandemic Causes Sharp Decline In Global Goods Trade - WTO

COVID-19 Pandemic Causes Sharp Decline in Global Goods Trade - WTO

The global trade in goods significantly declined due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is consistent with the World Trade Organization's (WTO) recent forecast on the reduction in world merchandise trade in 2020, the WTO said on Wednesday in its Goods Trade Barometer report, adding that the downward trend shows no signs of bottoming out so far

GENEVA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th May, 2020) The global trade in goods significantly declined due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is consistent with the World Trade Organization's (WTO) recent forecast on the reduction in world merchandise trade in 2020, the WTO said on Wednesday in its Goods Trade Barometer report, adding that the downward trend shows no signs of bottoming out so far.

On April 8, the WTO said in its report that the world trade could decrease by up to 32 percent in 2020, as "the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts normal economic activity and life around the world."

"The WTO's Goods Trade Barometer provides real-time information on the trajectory of world trade relative to recent trends. The current reading of 87.6 is down sharply from the 95.5 recorded in February 2020, suggesting a steep decline in global goods trade. The barometer captures the initial phases of the COVID-19 outbreak and shows no sign of the trade slump bottoming out yet. It is consistent with the WTO's trade forecast issued in April, which projected a decline in world merchandise trade of between 13% and 32% in 2020," the document said.

Among the most affected industries are automotive, which index fell to 79.7 due to a reduction in car production and sales in the world's leading economies, and export orders with 83.3 points, indicating that weak trade growth will persist in the short term. The decline in the container shipping index (88.5) and air freight index (88.0) reflects weak demand for traded goods.

Only the indices for electronic components and agricultural raw materials, 94.0 and 95.7, respectively, show signs of stability, although remaining below trend, the Barometer said.