The World Trade Organization gave out its fresh merchandise growth forecast for FY21, and raised it to 8.0%, after a fall of 5.3% in 2020.
WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said, ” … that this rise is due to the roll-out of COVID vaccines. But this opportunity could be squandered if large numbers of countries and people do not have equal access to vaccines”. The WTO said that short-term risks were “firmly on the downside” and were centred on pandemic-related factors. The WTO added that accelerated vaccine distribution and faster lockdown easing could add 2.5% points to trade, which would then return to its pre-pandemic trend in the 4th quarter, while, poor vaccine roll-outs and new variants could lower trade growth by nearly 2%.
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