WTO says 2005 trade growth slower than record pace of 2004
10 Nov '05
4 min read
Trade in commercial services grew in nominal terms by 18 per cent to $2.1 trillion in 2004, which was also stronger than the 14 per cent growth recorded in the preceding year.
Highlights of the report are:
Key features of the world trade developments in 2004 include the following:
- Strong economic growth and rapid trade expansion were present in all regions in 2004.
- The expansion of merchandise trade continued to exceed merchandise output growth by a large margin. The excess of trade over output growth was again particularly large for manufactures.
- The sharp rise in prices and traded volumes of many primary commodities has often been a major factor explaining the relative strength of regions and product groups in international trade flows. The most prominent illustration of this is, of course, export growth of net oil exporters. The sharp increase in net oil imports of China, the United States and India since 2000 had been a major factor behind the expansion of oil trade and the increase in oil prices.
- Sharp price increases for iron and steel, ores, non-ferrous metals and fuels combined with a further depreciation of the US dollar vis-à-vis the currencies of major European traders led to a double-digit price increase for world merchandise trade, the largest annual increase since 1995. These four product groups ( iron and steel, ores, non-ferrous metals and fuels) recorded export growth in excess of 30 per cent in 2004.
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