The volume of merchandise trade of the G7 group of countries grew in the third quarter of 2009, after being largely stable in the previous quarter. In fact, exports from G7 countries grew by 5.0% quarter-on-quarter and imports rose by 4.1% in the third quarter. However, when we look at year-on-year figures, exports were down 17.5% and imports also fell by 14.6%.
Germany actually increased its exports by 3.3% over the quarter, whilst the US showed a growth of 5.0%. However, the most impressive recovery was in Japan with exports rising 11.5% and imports up 4.7%. But, the recovery in Japan was from a lower base as Japan has seen a huge fall in its export trade. In fact, the year-on-year figures for the third quarter show that Japan’s exports by volume were still 25.1% down on the previous year, whilst imports were 12.7% lower.
G7 countries show a promising growth in merchandise trade in 3rd quarter of 2009
There was an increase in the value of exports of goods in the OECD area of an impressive 9.6% in the third quarter of 2009. However, services did not perform so well with an increase in exports of only 2.6%. When exports of goods and services are taken together the increase was 7.8%. The extent of the upswing is due, therefore, to the high share of goods in total trade.
Tags: exports, goods, imports, merchandise trade, services
