World trade developments

A strengthening of world economic output in 1999 reversed the slowdown of world trade in the first half of 1999 and led to a dynamic expansion of trade in the second half. For the year as a whole, the real growth of world trade remained unchanged from the preceding year and was below the average trade expansion recorded throughout the 1990s. Although trade growth continued to exceed both the growth in world commodity output and world GDP, the excess margin between the growth rates remained smaller in 1999 than those observed during the 1990–1997 period.