WTO Projects Slow Economic Growth In 2012 The World Trade Organization projects that global trade in goods will grow by only 2.5 percent this year. That's down from last year's 5 percent growth, and much lower than the nearly 14 percent in 2010.

WTO Projects Slow Economic Growth In 2012

WTO Projects Slow Economic Growth In 2012

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/162071410/162071541" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

The World Trade Organization projects that global trade in goods will grow by only 2.5 percent this year. That's down from last year's 5 percent growth, and much lower than the nearly 14 percent in 2010.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with more signs of a slowdown.

The World Trade Organization projects that global trade in goods will grow by only 2.5 percent this year. Not so great. That's down from last year's 5 percent growth, and much lower than the nearly 14 percent in 2010 as a global recovery began.

Analysts told The Wall Street Journal that economic problems in Europe are playing a major role here. It's bad news for China, for which the European Union has been a huge export market, and it is also bad news for the United States.

The Obama administration has been relying on exports to bring up the U.S. economy.

Copyright © 2012 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.