Moderate growth of merchandise trade in fourth quarter of 2012

Merchandise trade showed moderate growth in the major economies during the fourth quarter of 2012. Compared to the third quarter, the value of merchandise exports and imports for the G7 and  BRICS countries increased by 1.2% and 1.0%, respectively. However, performance varied widely across individual countries.

Compared to the previous quarter, merchandise imports and exports increased in the fourth quarter of 2012 in the United States (by 0.9% and 1.4%, respectively), China (by 2.8% and 3.8%), the Russian Federation (by 1.1% and 4.8%), India (by 6.5% and 3.1%), Brazil (by 7.7% and 1.1%) and, more moderately, France (by 0.8% and 0.1%).

Imports grew and exports contracted in Germany (by 0.2% and minus 0.6% respectively) and in the United Kingdom (by 1.6% and minus 2.2%). Imports contracted grew as exports grew in Canada (by minus 0.2% and 1.4%) and in Italy (by minus 0.7% and 2.3%).

Imports and exports contracted sharply in Japan (by minus 4.4% and by minus 3.9%) and more moderately in South Africa (by minus 1.4% and minus 1.0%)..

Merchandise trade in US$ billion

G7 and BRICS

Seasonally adjusted data at current prices and exchange rates

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Documento completo en: http://www.oecd.org/std/its/TradeQ42012_Eng.pdf

Fuente: Statistics on International Trade Database, OECD