After a recovery in international trade in 2017, economic conditions started deteriorating in the second half of 2018 and further in 2019, due to trade tensions between the United States of America and China, fears of a disorderly Brexit in Europe and a negative global output outlook more generally.
The trade downturn of 2019 has been widespread across all geographic regions. Merchandise trade has shown largest drops while services trade kept increasing in 2019, although at a slower pace. Trade in natural resources showed the strongest drops in 2019 because of lower prices, while manufactured goods trade decline was modest. Agricultural trade kept increasing in 2019.
