Global trade fell at the fastest pace since the financial crisis in February as coronavirus hit Asia, in an early indication of the further deterioration in goods volumes that economists expect as the virus spreads around the world.
The volume of global trade in goods dropped 2.6 per cent in February compared with the same month last year, according to a widely watched world trade monitor published by the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
Compared with the previous month, global trade fell 1.5 per cent, the second consecutive contraction this year. Global trade volumes had already been slowing as a result of last year’s trade war between the US and China.