WTO Gauge of Services Trade Shows Broad First-Quarter Slowdown

Bryce Baschuk, Bloomberg News

A forklift operates beside a stack of United Bulk Carriers International SA shipping containers at Duisburg Intermodal Terminal (DIT) at Duisport port in Duisburg, Germany, on Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2019. In Germany, second-quarter output was damped by trade, with exports falling faster than imports. Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

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Global trade in services slowed during the first quarter of 2019, according to a new World Trade Organization report.

The report describes a “broad loss in momentum” among various services sectors like finance, technology, tourism and transportation.

The index stood at 98.4, below the baseline of 100, “suggesting that services trade continued to face strong headwinds leading into the second half of the year,” the Geneva-based organization said in a statement.

Services have generally held up better than goods trade because the latter is more directly affected by recent tariff tensions, the WTO said in the first release of the services trade indicator.

The WTO has already slashed its global trade growth projection for 2019 to the lowest level in three years, citing the impact of rising commercial tensions and tariffs. The WTO previously has said world merchandise trade growth will slow to 2.6% this year and 3% next year, after notching 3% in 2018.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bryce Baschuk in Geneva at bbaschuk2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Murray at brmurray@bloomberg.net, Jeff Kearns