GENEVA , Switzerland, April 14 (UPI) -- The World Trade Organization said global commerce will grow by 4.7 percent this years and 5.3 percent in 2015, a return to normal following the global financial crisis.
The forecast, released Monday in Geneva, Switzerland, is consistent with others suggesting a return to normal in global trade, and is in line with average growth rate in the past 20 years.
In 2009, trade declined by 12 percent, but increased by 14 percent in the following year. The new predictions make clear, though, that world trade is not growing the way it did in 2008. The overall impact indicates trade is above the pre-crisis level but below where it would have been had it grown in line with the pre-crisis movement. The new figures confirm that the world’s largest trader of goods is China, and the world leader in commercial services is the United States. If the member states of the European Union were treated as one entity, it would outpace China in trade of goods.
[BBC]
