World Trade Organization expects global trade to grow by 2.4% in 2017



12/04/2017 04:23 | Number of readings: 182

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The World Trade Organization (WTO) said on Wednesday that global trade is growing at 2.4 percent this year, but there is "deep uncertainty" over economic and political developments, especially in the United States.



"This year's growth range was revised to between 1.8 and 3.6 percent from 1.8 percent and 3.1 percent last September," the organization said in a statement. "Concerns over the bottleneck of trade activities are unclear because of government policy uncertainty."



"We should look at trade as part of the solution to economic difficulties, not as part of the problem," said Roberto Azivido, FAO Director-General.



"There is generally cautious optimism, but trade growth remains fragile, there is a risk of a significant decline and a great deal of political uncertainty," he told a press conference, calling on the world to "continue to resist the creation of new barriers to trade."



The WTO has revised its initial estimates repeatedly over the past five years on expectations of an economic recovery that has proved to be optimistic.



World trade grew at an "average slow" rate of 1.3 percent in 2016, the lowest pace since the financial crisis, unable even to match the September revised WTO forecast of 1.7 percent.



In 2018, global trade is expected to grow between 2.1 and 4 percent, according to the latest World Trade Organization analysis.

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