Global trade in goods has shown a strong recovery in the third quarter from the heavy contraction in the second quarter, when World Trade was hit very hard by the crisis and lockdowns. This was announced by the World Trade Organisation (WTO). According to the WTO, the volume of international trade increased by 11.6 percent on a quarterly basis. In the second quarter this was still a minus of 12.7 percent. This shrinkage is a little less strong than we thought, because earlier a minus of 14.3 percent was calculated. Moreover, the volume of trade has not yet fully recovered from corona in the third quarter, as compared with last year there is still a 5.6 percent decrease. In the major industrialized countries of North America, Europe and Asia, trade attracted the strongest, according to the WTO. In Europe and North America, this was mainly due to the relaxation of lock-down measures and large support packages from governments. Over the first three quarters of 2020, the volume of trade is still 8.2 percent lower than in the same period a year ago. The WTO says that provisional figures for October point to a weakening of trade growth compared with September, with new lock-down measures against the second wave, particularly in Europe.
