Trade slump causing big dent in global growth

Tokyo

A SLUMP in world trade growth caused partly by China's slowdown is a major factor behind the sluggishness of the global economy, said the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which predicts that economies will pick up slowly over the next two years.

In its latest bi-annual Economic Outlook published on Monday, it said that global growth has eased to around 3 per cent this year - "well below its long-run average"; growth is likely to slow this year to 2.9 per cent from 3.3 per cent last year, and recover modestly to 3.3 per cent next year and then to 3.6 per cent in 2017.

OECD chief economist Catherine Mann said: "Global trade, which was already growing relatively slowly over the past few years, appears to have stagnated and even declined…