“Trade growth is likely to slow further into the fourth quarter of 2018 according to the WTO’s latest World Trade Outlook Indicator (WTOI) released on 26 November,” the World Trade Organization reported on Monday.
Key takeaways from the press release
- The continued moderation in the overall WTOI index was driven by the steady decline in the export orders index (96.6).
- The latest results are consistent with the WTO’s downgraded outlook for global trade issued in September amid escalating trade tensions and tighter credit conditions in important markets.
- The revised forecast anticipated trade expansion to slow to 3.9% in 2018 and 3.7% in 2019 from 4.7% in 2017.