Warning on global trade growth slowdown

Global trade in goods will grow 3.7% this year after expanding a less-than-forecast 5% in 2011 as Europe’s debt crisis continues to crimp commerce, the World Trade Organization said.

“More than three years have passed since the trade collapse of 2008-09, but the world economy and trade remain fragile,” WTO director-general Pascal Lamy said in a statement in Geneva yesterday.

“We are not yet out of the woods.”