WTO cuts growth forecast to 2.5pc

World trade will grow by a mere 2.5 per cent this year, dragged down by Europe to less than half of the previous 20-year average, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) says.

The WTO has cut its estimate from 3.7 per cent, made in April, and also lowered its forecast for next year to 4.5 per cent from 5.6 per cent.

"I see the risk more on the downside than the upside," the WTO's director-general, Pascal Lamy, said in Singapore yesterday.

"What could be surprising is that you have a volume of trade that is lower than world growth."

via Business feed http://www.scmp.com/business/economy/article/1042642/wto-cuts-growth-forecast-25pc