Coronavirus putting world on track for new Great Depression, says WTO
by Larry Elliott from Economics | The Guardian on (#51WF6)
International trade body predicts commerce could shrink up to 32% and warns against 30s-style protectionism
International trade has dried up as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and could be on course for a collapse as severe as that of the 1930s Great Depression, the World Trade Organization has said.
The Geneva-based WTO, responsible for policing the global trading system, said even the most optimistic scenario for 2020 was that trade would shrink by 13%, a bigger drop than in the 2008-09 recession caused by the banking crisis.
Related: A hundred years on, will there be another Great Depression?
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