BOK says global trade likely to grow by 3.1 pct this year

SEOUL, April 18 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's central bank said Tuesday that global trade is expected to expand by 3.1 percent this year on an economic recovery in the United States and other major economies.

The Bank of Korea said the U.S. economy is forecast to grow by 2.2 percent, while the Chinese and Japanese economies are expected to expand by 6.5 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.

The economic recovery in the U.S. and other major countries could give a boost to world trade.

As global raw material transactions start to rise, raw material exporting countries begin to increase imports of overseas products. It is another factor that could contribute to a recovery in global trade.

The BOK's projection for global trade growth in 2017 is 0.9 percentage points higher from a year earlier, but it is way short of the 8 percent in 2007, a year before the global financial crisis.

Last week, the World Trade Organization forecast on its website that global trade will expand by 2.4 percent, though it warned that deep uncertainty surrounding near-term economic and policy developments could affect this.

Experts said trade protectionism in the United States and other countries could pose an additional drag on trade growth.

entropy@yna.co.kr
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