The president of the World Trade Organization drew attention to the danger of the world being divided into two trade blocs due to the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine. According to official statements, the global economy may lose 5 percent growth.
Publika.az reports that the Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala warned.
He noted that the global economy is showing signs of fragmentation at a very high cost to everyone:
“The expansion of the Israel-Hamas conflict and its spread to the Middle East is affecting global growth. The Middle East is one of the regions where most of the oil and gas come from. The forecast for 2024 is relatively normal. Growth is expected to be around 3.3 percent.
Risks are mostly on the downside. If the world were to split into two trading blocs, global GDP would fall by 5 percent in the long run. This means a great loss, which will destroy the entire Japanese economy.”
However, trade in goods and services is about $31 trillion. Earlier this month, the WTO cut its global trade growth forecast for 2023 to 0.8 percent from a previously forecast 1.7 percent, citing a deepening slowdown in the manufacturing sector.
