WTO: Global Trade to Grow 2.4% in 2025

New Delhi, Oct 7 (PTI) The global merchandise trade is expected to grow 2.4 per cent this year and only 0.5 per cent next year, according to the WTO forecast.

In August, the World Trade Organization (WTO) projected 0.9 per cent growth for 2025.

However, it said that trade growth will likely slow in 2026 as the impact of the cooling global economy and new tariffs set in.

The 2026 projection has been lowered to 0.5 per cent from 1.8 per cent earlier, it said.

Global services exports growth is expected to slow down from 6.8 per cent in 2024 to 4.6 per cent in 2025 and 4.4 per cent in 2026, it added.

"WTO economists raised the 2025 merchandise trade growth forecast to 2.4 per cent (up from 0.9 per cent in August)," it said.

The high growth this year is due to the increased spending on AI-related products and a surge in North American imports ahead of tariff hikes.

WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said that today's disruptions to the global trade system are a call to action for nations to reimagine trade.

It added that AI-related goods, including semiconductors, servers, and telecommunications equipment, drove nearly half of the overall trade expansion in the first half of the year.