The World Trade Organization (WTO) indicated that, according to its latest published statistics, global merchandise trade recovered in the first quarter of 2024 , after remaining stable in 2023.
The multilateral organization detailed that merchandise trade, measured as the average of exports and imports, increased by 1.0% in the first quarter compared to the previous quarter and 1.4% compared to the same period in 2023.
“Most regions contributed positively to this growth in the volume exchanged, with Europe maintaining a notable exception with its imports and exports continuing to decline,” the WTO indicated.
Likewise, he recalled that in his Global Trade Outlook and Statistics report published on April 10, he predicted that the volume of merchandise exchanged in the world would grow between 2.6% in 2024 and 3.3% in 2025 .
The growth of the first quarter of this year is in line with these expectations and could even increase up to 2.7% for this year, he announced.
“Meanwhile, the US dollar value of global merchandise trade decreased by 2% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2024. The fact that trade values decreased while trade volumes increased indicates that export and import prices were falling during this period,” he stated.
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