World trade contracted sharply in September, dashing hopes that the global downturn that has been weighing on exporters had bottomed out. The volume of global trade dropped by 1.3 percent in September compared to the previous month, after a o.5 percent expansion in August, according to data from the CPB World Trade Monitor. September’s fall reverses the gains made in the previous two months, which had raised expectations that the worst of the disruption caused by the global trade war has passed.
“While news about the negotiations between the US and China is mixed at best, trade remains subdued,” said Timme Spakman, an economist at ING.
Compared to the same month last year, global trade contracted by 1.1 percent in September, marking the fourth consecutive year-on-year contraction and the longest period of falling trade since the financial crisis in 2009, according to the CPB Monitor.