The recovery of global goods trade is accelerating from a steep drop a year ago due to COVID-19, although some regions are lagging given an unequal roll-out of vaccinations, the World Trade Organization said on Friday.
The WTO said its goods trade barometer had surged to 109.7 points in May, well above the baseline of 100, from 103.9 in February and the low of 88.1 in the second quarter of 2020, when global goods trade volume fell 15.5%.
“In the latest month, all of the barometer’s component indices were above trend and rising, highlighting the broad-based nature of the recovery and signalling an accelerating pace of trade expansion,” the WTO said.
The WTO said the reading was broadly in line with its forecast of an 8% pick-up of merchandise trade volume this year after a 5.3% decline in 2020, but the improvement was uneven.
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