Summary of the external trade statistics in ESCWA member countries

Abstract

World trade continued to grow at a slow pace for a third year in a row. Its weak growth rate of 1 per cent in 2014 is even lower than the 2.2 per cent recorded in the two previous years. According to the World Trade Organization’s data, growth in the volume of world trade reached 2.5 per cent which better matches the growth in world output during 2014. Among the factors responsible for this continued slow growth of world trade is the sudden and sustained decline of oil prices since August 2014, slow growth of the emerging economies and the slow and uneven recovery of the developed countries. In value terms, world exports reached US$ 18.4 billion in 2014. Germany and Canada achieved 4 per cent growth rates in their exports in 2014 while growth rate of USA exports settled around 3 per cent. Major developed countries witnessed negative growth rates of their exports during 2014 among them Britain which suffered a 7 per cent drop of their exports and Japan 4 per cent. The scene in the developing world was slightly similar with the exception of China and Mexico having 6 per cent and 5 per cent growth of their exports respectively. Negative growth rates of exports generally speaking characterized the rest of the developing regions that averaged 8 per cent in Africa and 6 per cent in Latin America.