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Global trade is recovering faster-than-expected from pandemic lows in the first half of 2021 and will grow faster-than-expected next year, raising global growth forecasts, the World Trade Organization said on Monday.
The WTO now forecasts that global trade in goods will increase by 10.8 percent in 2021, up from the 8 percent it forecast in March as the flow of goods recovers from last year’s decline. The WTO said that global trade is expected to increase by 4.7 percent in 2022 as the growth rate approaches its pre-pandemic trend.
The group said trade growth was uneven as a result of the pandemic, with developing regions in particular lagging behind due to lower vaccination rates, and supply chain disruptions continue to weigh on trade in some areas.
Unequal access to vaccines is driving economic disparity between regions, WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said on Monday. He urged group members to come together and agree on a basis for faster vaccine production and fair distribution.
“This is necessary to sustain the global economic recovery,” he said. “Vaccination policy is economic policy and trade policy.”
More than six billion doses of the vaccine have been produced and administered worldwide, but only 2.2 percent of people in low-income countries receive at least one dose, the WTO said.
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