Trade Growth Solid Despite Signs of Slowdown
International trade among industrialized nations grew at a healthy pace during the third quarter despite signs of economic slowdown in the US and elsewhere, according to statistics from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
In total, exports of goods and services from the 30 OECD member countries grew 4.8%, quarter-on-quarter, while imports grew 4.9%, according to the OECD’s (www.oecd.org) quarterly report.
Year-on-year export value growth for goods and services in OECD countries rose to 15.4%, and import growth rose to 12.5%, reversing the downward trends in both figures in previous quarters.
The most striking shift was the swing in the US trade figures (excluding services). “In the United States, quarter-on-quarter merchandise trade exports grew 4.5%, while imports picked up slightly by 1.2%. On a year-on-year basis, export growth was the highest of the G7 at 10.3% in the third quarter of 2007 while import volume growth remained low at 1.3%.”
Growth in US imports has steadily declined from 7.6% in Q3 2006.
Japan experienced the single largest year-on-year shift in trade balance, according to the report: “Japanese merchandise exports grew 3.1% compared with the previous quarter while imports fell 0.9%. Year-on-year, export volumes were up 6.4% while imports were down 4.9%. “
Germany’s exports grew by 3.4% and imports by 2.6% compared with the second quarter of 2007. On a year-on-year basis, exports rose 6.4% while imports rose 11.2%.
Merchandise trade in the Group of Seven countries grew a seasonally-adjusted 2.6% for exports and 2.2% for imports in the third quarter of 2007 - the highest quarterly growth rate since 2005.
On a year-on-year basis, G7 trade volume growth accelerated to 5.7% for exports and 3.6% for imports
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