WTO: Global trade set to grow 6.5%

GLOBAL commerce will grow 6.5% this year after expanding a record 14.5% in 2010 as economies from China to Brazil recover from the worst recession in six decades, the World Trade Organisation said.

The Geneva-based WTO said it sees a “greater degree of uncertainty to any forecast” for 2011 as growing inflation, unrest in the Middle East and the March earthquake in Japan have “tilted the balance of risk toward the downside.”

Developing economies will lead global trade growth this year, with a forecast 9.5% rise, compared with 4.5% for developed nations.