WTO:Service trade growth slows in major economies

By Zhong Mengxia

According to the latest World Trade Organization (WTO) service trade barometer released recently, the global service trade activity seems to have weakened in the fourth quarter (Q4) of this year, and may continue to remain weak in the first few months of next year.The slowdown in major economies has put pressure on the recovery after the pandemic.Trade barometer reflects the views of most enterprises on market growth, risks and international trade.

The barometer index in October dropped to 98.3, slightly lower than the baseline value of 100, and far lower than the reading of 105.5 last released in June.The WTO said in a press release that these findings were consistent with the commodity trade barometer in late November, and the growth of commodity trade slowed down in the last months of 2022 and 2023.In the second quarter of this year, the world trade volume in services finally exceeded the peak before the pandemic summit.Driven by the expenditure on tourism, information and communication technology services and financial services, it will maintain a strong momentum of recovery next year.

However, the container transport index (92.8) and the service purchasing managers index (91.1) both fell sharply.Due to the declining growth prospects of major service economies, the year-on-year growth of actual business services began to slow down in the third quarter, and may further slow down in the fourth quarter until next year.

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