News in Charts: Global trade – pause or rewind?

Fathom Consulting’s latest Global Economic and Markets Outlook (GEMO) central scenario envisages a continued pause in global trade growth, resulting from the ongoing uncertainty around the US and China’s trading relationship. Though this will — and has — been a drag on GDP, we see investors’ fears of a global recession as overblown. Our estimates point to a sharp reversal in trade growth, from 2% above trend in the middle of last year to 2% below trend now. While this fall is significant, it pales in comparison to the Global Financial Crisis, which was the deepest global recession in decades.