THE World Trade Organisation (WTO) has slashed its 2012 global trade outlook, citing the eurozone debt crisis and weak growth in the US and China as key factors behind the downgrade.
Global trade is now expected to grow 2.5 per cent in 2012 compared with a previous forecast of 3.7 per cent, the WTO said in a statement. It also cut its global trade growth outlook for next year to 4.5 per cent from 5.6 per cent.
"The global economy has encountered increasingly strong headwinds since the last WTO Secretariat forecast was issued," the WTO said.