The growth of global trade in goods, a critical factor in the health of the world economy, slowed down sharply in the second quarter of the year, the OECD said on Wednesday. But China and Brazil ramped up their exports of goods.
The slowing of growth was radical: imports by the top Group of Seven industrialised countries and the main so-called BRICS emerging economies expanded by 1.1 per cent in the second quarter, down from growth of 10.1 per cent in the first quarter. The BRICS countries are: Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, China and South Africa.
The data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) also showed that the growth of exports by these two groups slowed to 1.9 per cent in the second quarter from 7.7 per cent in the first quarter. However, the picture was different in China, where the growth of imports was 0.7 per cent, down sharply from 11.1 per cent, but exports surged to 10 per cent from 2.9 per cent. In the U.S., the growth of imports slowed to 3 per cent from 11.1 per cent, and export growth to 2.6 per cent from 5.6 per cent.
Alongside China, Brazil also increased its growth of exports of goods to 11.2 per cent from 5.7 per cent, it said.
