WTO slashes 2012 global trade growth outlook

The WTO did this citing the eurozone debt crisis and weak growth in the US and China as key factors behind the downgrade.Global trade is now expected to grow 2.5 percent in 2012 compared with a previous forecast of 3.7 percent, the WTO said in a statement released in Singapore.It also cut its global trade growth outlook for next year to 4.5 percent from 5.6 percent.In April the WTO had warned that world trade growth, which slowed to 5.0 percent in 2011 after a big rebound of 14.0 percent in 2010, would weaken again this year.Director-general Pascal Lamy called for more to be done to boost global growth, on top of recent measures to to buy up government bonds announced by the central banks of the United States, Europe and Japan.The WTOs revised projections for 2012 came as data showed global trade volume grew just 0.3 percent in the second quarter, significantly slower than the 1.2 percent seen in the previous three months.Lamy, speaking at a press conference in Singapore, said the WTOs revised trade outlook should not come as a surprise given the strains facing the global economy.