Buried in the recent avalanche of trade tweets were two interesting data points that did not make the front page. The first is a speech by World Trade Organization (WTO) director general Roberto Azevedothat rolled out the WTO’s annual trade forecast. He noted that global trade grew 4.7 percent last year, which was the largest increase in six years, and that it is predicted to grow at the rate of 4.4 percent this year and four percent next year.
This data was accompanied by the now-standard caveat that an increase in protectionist actions and particularly a “cycle of retaliation” (no names mentioned, but we all know who he was talking about) could negatively affect these numbers. The report also noted that these numbers are below the average annual growth rate since 1990, which is 4.8 percent.
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