Merchandise trade, volume (real) terms, 2009

World merchandise trade in volume terms (i.e. excluding the influence of prices and exchange rates) fell by 12.2 per cent in 2009. This was well below the 2.1 per cent increase for 2008, and significantly lower than the 10 year average increase of 4.1 per cent. The drop in trade was also larger than the 2.3 per cent decline in GDP for 2009, which is not surprising since world trade generally grows faster than GDP when output is accelerating and declines more when output slows.