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According to the statistics compiled by the WTO, the world merchandise trade increased by approximately 25% in the first

06 months of 2010 (January to June 2010) compared with the corresponding period of 2009. However, this increase should be cautiously viewed in the context of 12% decrease of world trade recorded in the year 2009 and particularly the sharp decrease of international trade during the first half of year 2009. Furthermore, the volume of the international trade remains at present far below the peak level reached in mid 2008 before the global financial and economic crisis. In other word, the value of global merchandise exports remains about 15% lower than its mid 2008 peak. According to WTO, exports were increased by 35% in the Asian, African and Middle East regions on account of increased demand emanated from the domestic markets of Asia and USA and also due to high commodity prices recorded during the period under review. The CIS countries posted a buoyant 44% export growth. Similarly, extra EU exports (EU trade with rest of the world) were more dynamic but intra EU trade (trade within the 27 EU countries) recorded a decline due to the slow recovery of EU countries consequently to economic downturn of 2008/2009. These statistics suggest that the economic recovery is more evident in the Asia & Middle East regions than in the EU while the US is showing modest recovery following the recent economic downturn. In July, Chinas Trade surplus climbed to US$28.7 billion, the largest since January 2009. In contrast, the US Trade deficit for both goods and services jumped by 18% between May and June reaching US$49.9 billion. The US Trade deficit with China alone increased to US$26.2 billion in the month of June. Another major trading nation, Germany the 3rd largest exporter of the world has been accumulating a growing trade surplus mainly due to the weaker Euro. Following faster than expected recovery in the global trade flows so far in 2010, the WTO economists have revised their projections for the world trade growth in 2010 upwards to 13.5%. Merchandised exports of the developed economies are predicted to expand by 11.5% in volume whilst exports from the developing economies and CIS countries are expected to record an increase of 16.5% (Please see the table below). Table: Merchandise exports and GDP by region, 2007 2010 Annual % change 2007 2008 2009 2010

Volume of merchandise exports World 6.5 2.2 4.8 -12.2 0.8 3.8 13.5 -15.3 -7.8 11.5 16.5

Developed economies

Developing economies and CIS 9.0

Real GDP at market exchange rates (2005) World 3.8 2.6 8.0 1.6 0.4 5.7 -2.2 -3.5 2.0 5.9 3.0 2.1

Developed economies

Developing economies and CIS

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