July 24, 2009
China could challenge Germany’s export title
The World Trade Organization (WTO) says Asian countries “may be leading a recovery in global trade” but “there’s no room for complacency”.
World exports of merchandise goods grew 15 per cent in nominal terms in 2008 to US$15.78 trillion, WTO said in its latest World Trade Report.
The report noted that trade rose two per cent in real or volume terms in 2008 after rising six per cent in 2007. “However, trade still managed to grow more than global output, as is usually the case when production growth is positive,” it said. “Conversely, when output growth is declining, trade growth tends to fall even more, as is evident in 2009.”
Germany retained its position as the world’s leading merchandise exporter last year, with exports of US$1.47 trillion, slightly larger than China’s US$1.43 trillion.
But WTO chief economist Patrick Low said the current (tipped) recovery in global exports was fragile and a weak European performance meant China is expected to overtake Germany as the biggest merchandise exporter this year.
China’s export performance faltered at the end of 2008. Its exports to the US rose only one per cent over the whole year after a growth of 14 per cent in the third quarter. WTO said the US was the biggest importer in 2008, bringing in US$2.17 trillion of merchandise goods, 13.2 per cent of the total, followed by Germany with a 7.3 per cent share of US$1.21 trillion.
Total world imports rose 15 per cent to US$16.12 trillion, giving a US$345 billion discrepancy with exports, due to different ways of measuring imports and exports, the WTO data showed.
Thursday, 23 July 2009
SOURCE: http://www.impactpub.com.au/
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