World exports shrank by 8.8% year-on-year in the first five months of this year, unctad said

South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported on September 27 that the world's economic stagnation has worsened as the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) released its trade Development Report 2020. Among them, the export of developed countries decreased by 12.0% compared with the same period last year, and the contraction was even worse than that of developing countries (-4.7%). Among the advanced economies, Europe's exports fell the most (-13.3%), with America's falling 12.1% and Japan's falling 9.2%. Among developing economies, exports fell -8.7% in South America, -4.4% in China and -3.1% in Asia excluding China.

Over the same period, global imports fell by 8.5 per cent, widening by 8.1 percentage points compared with a year earlier, and by 10.5 per cent for developed and 5.6 per cent for developing countries.

Import declines for major economies were -12.2% in Europe, -12.0% in South America, -9.1% in the United States, -6.6% in Asia excluding China, -4.4% in Japan, -2.0% in China, -2.0% in Africa and -2.0% in the Middle East.

According to UNCTAD, the slowdown in global economic growth and trade conditions have been compounded by increasing trade frictions between the United States and China. Covid-19 has led to border closures, restrictions on air travel and transportation, delays in customs clearance, restrictions on the export of medical supplies and food, and rising costs of foreign trade, leading to a decline in world trade volumes.