Geneva, April – The World Trade Organization (WTO) predicted in a report Wednesday that international trade in 2024 will recover but warned that regional conflicts, geopolitical tensions, and economic policy uncertainty pose substantial downside risks to the forecast, the report added.
During 2023, global trade declined 1.2 percent amid geopolitical and economic turmoil after registering a 3 percent growth in 2022. In value terms, the decline in merchandise exports was more pronounced in 2023, declining 5 percent to $24.01 trillion, WTO said in its Global Trade Outlook and Statistics report.
As economic pressures ease and incomes rise, the volume of global merchandise trade will increase by 2.6 percent in 2024 and 3.3 percent in 2025, the report added.