The World Trade Organization (WTO) issued its Services Trade Barometer, revealing that global trade in commercial services faced increasing headwinds in the second quarter of 2019. The latest reading of 98.4 is below the baseline value of 100 and well below the most recent peak of 103.1 recorded in July 2018, suggesting a loss of momentum in world services trade.
Already, world services trade growth had weakened further in the first quarter of 2019, in line with a general trade weakness, which provides an approximate measure of the volume of world services trade by adjusting nominal services trade values to account for changes in exchange rates and inflation.
Despite its recent loss of momentum, services trade has generally held up better than goods trade, which is more directly affected by rising trade tensions.
Most of the barometer’s component indices declined in June, indicating a broad loss of momentum across service sectors.
The financial services index finished slightly below trend, down from the previous month.
The ICT services index fell from above-trend in mid-2018 to on-trend.
In contrast, the container shipping index was slightly above trend and rising in June, following a multi-month slowdown.
