International Trade Growth Cooled in Second Quarter, OECD Says

Global trade cooled in the second quarter, with growth in both exports and imports slowing in most Group of Seven countries and major emerging markets, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said.

Goods export growth among the G-7 and the BRICS nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa slowed to 1.9 percent from 7.7 percent in the previous three months, the Paris-based institution said in an e-mailed statement today. Imports rose 1.1 percent, down from 10 percent.

The figures highlight the weakening in the global recovery that has prompted Federal Reserve policy makers to debate ways to invigorate the U.S. economy. In the U.K., two officials who had favored an interest-rate increase dropped their push for higher borrowing costs this month.

Import and export growth slowed in all G-7 and BRICS countries, apart from a surge in imports in Brazil and exports from China, the OECD said.

While Chinese import growth plunged to 0.7 percent, the slowest since the first quarter of 2009, from 11.1 percent, exports surged 10 percent, up from 2.9 percent in the first three months of the year. That led to a “sharp increase” in the nation’s trade surplus, the OECD said.

U.S. import growth slowed to 3 percent versus 11.1 percent and export growth cooled to 2.6 percent from 5.6 percent.

The G-7 countries are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S.

To contact the reporter on this story: Scott Hamilton in London at shamilton8@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Craig Stirling at cstirling1@bloomberg.net

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