11th March 2020

World services trade growth continued to weaken toward the end of 2019 and into the first quarter of 2020 according to the WTO's Services Trade Barometer, released on 11 March 2020. The latest reading of 96.8 is down from the 98.4 recorded last September and well below the baseline value of 100 for the index, suggesting below-trend growth in world services trade. The indicator does not yet fully capture the economic impact of the COVID-19 virus and is likely to decline further in the coming months. …read more