Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 13 • Number 27 • 22nd July 2009
Trade Volumes Continue to Drop, But at Slower Rate, Says OECD
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International trade flows continued to drop in the first quarter of 2009, according to a new study by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), but the decline is less drastic than the drop in trade registered in the fourth quarter of 2008.
“Compared with the previous quarter, the value of exports and imports of goods and services in OECD countries… continued to drop significantly, albeit less dramatically,” the report stated. First quarter exports from OECD countries dropped by 13.4 percent, whereas imports fell by 15.2 percent during the same period. The OECD counts 30 high-income countries as members, most of which are in North America and Europe.
Within the Group of 7 major world economies — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US — the drop in exports was similar to that of the OECD group as a whole, at 13.6 percent. However, the G7 countries did not experience such a drastic decrease in imports, which fell only 10.5 percent. But this fact should not understate the group’s sharp decline in trade in the midst of the global economic crisis. Year-on-year exports from the G7 fell by 22.8 percent and imports by 16.8 percent. Given the similar patterns of decreasing trade flows across member countries, the OECD described the current economic climate as a ‘synchronized trade collapse’.
Japan has been hit particularly hard by the current economic downturn. The country has suffered a 26.7 percent drop in quarter-to-quarter exports, with imports down 12.9 percent. Compared to the first quarter of 2008, Japanese exports have plummeted 42.1 percent, while imports have sunk 18.1 percent. Japan’s top exports include motor vehicles, electronic equipment, and machine tools.
The OECD’s analysis of trade flows for the second quarter of 2009 will be released in October.
Additional Information
A copy of the report is available on the OECD website at http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/15/2/43319682.pdf.
ICTSD reporting.
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