World trade thrives despite Covid-19 Pandemic

Take a look at the World Trade Monitor December 2021.

The growth of world trade during the pandemic can be partly explained by the worldwide increase in demand for goods, which itself can be partly attributed to a shift in demand from services to goods. The lockdowns and restrictive measures complicated international travel, tourism and other services. At the same time, spending on durable consumption goods has increased, e.g. equipment to work from home, and other products for in and around the house. Especially trade in China and other emerging Asia (like India and Indonesia) benefited from this: the exports of these trade regions have risen to levels roughly 50% and 20% above the pre-covid levels respectively.

Figures December

The growth of trade in December 2021 is broad based. In the eurozone, the United States, the United Kingdom, Latin America and other Asia (excluding China and Japan) both imports and exports increased. The remarkable exception is China, where imports in December declined with -4.6% and exports with -1.5%. Also Japan showed a decline. Both imports and exports declined with -1.1%.