A report issued by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) showed that global trade movement contracted by 9 percent over the past year, despite the improvement it recorded at the end of the year led by East Asian economies.
According to the report, the recovery in global trade during the fourth quarter of last year was uneven, as the movement of goods trade increased by 8%, while the trade in services contracted.
The report showed that while international trade was severely affected by the economic and social disruptions caused by the emerging coronavirus pandemic, East Asian countries recorded an increase in their share of the global market after they were able to better deal with the pandemic challenge.
The last quarter of last year witnessed a growth in exports of goods from China by 17 percent annually, while exports from Japan increased by 3 percent and South Korea by 4 percent. The Chinese economy recorded a growth rate of 2.3 percent during the past year, after growing in the last quarter of the year by 6.5 percent, which contributed to offsetting the economic contraction in the first months of the year.
UNCTAD revealed that while merchandise trade recorded a growth during the first half of last year, services trade continued to decline internationally due to the severe effects of travel restrictions imposed to contain the pandemic. At the same time, the movement of trade in goods in the world decreased during the past year as a whole by 6 percent annually, while trade in services decreased by 10.5 percent.
Source Asharq Al-Awsat Newspaper, Edited)
