Xinhua news agency, Geneva, June 23 (reporter Ling Xin, Hu Hanlu) the World Trade Organization released an updated version of "Global trade data and Outlook" report on June 23, showing that in the first quarter of this year, the volume of Global trade in goods fell 3% year-on-year, and it is expected that the decline in the second quarter will be about 18.5%.

The report said that thanks to the rapid response of governments, despite the historic decline in Global trade volume in the second quarter of this year, the overall performance of the whole year is expected to avoid the worst situation previously expected by the WTO.

WTO director general alessando Azevedo said that national policies are essential to mitigate the ongoing impact of the current new crown epidemic on the economy and trade, and will continue to play an important role in determining the speed of economic recovery. Only when fiscal, monetary and trade policies of all countries move in the same direction can the global economy and trade rebound strongly in 2021.

In a report released in April, the WTO predicted that global trade would shrink by 13% to 32% this year. According to the updated report, in the third and fourth quarter of this year, as long as global trade keeps a quarter on quarter growth rate of 2.5%, the annual trade performance will reach the most optimistic expectation.

In terms of the trend of Global trade growth in 2021, the WTO warned that the second wave of outbreaks, lower than expected economic growth, and the adoption of trade restrictions by various economies would lead to lower than expected trade growth. According to the data, the growth rate of Global trade in 2021 must reach about 20% to return to the growth track before the outbreak.