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World Trade Volumes Plunge at Fastest Pace in a Decade

The global trade funk is dragging on.

World Trade Volumes Plunge at Fastest Pace in a Decade
Shipping containers sit stacked at the Port of Houston Bayport Container Terminal in Pasadena, Texas, U.S. (Photographer: Loren Elliott/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- The global trade funk is dragging on, with new data on Thursday showing volumes are falling at the fastest pace since the depths of the financial crisis.

Calculations by Bloomberg based on the trade monitor of Dutch Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis CPB show a 1.9 percent drop in the three months through February compared with the previous three months. That marks the steepest drop since the period through May 2009.

World Trade Volumes Plunge at Fastest Pace in a Decade

Comparing the most recent three months with a year earlier is similarly disappointing. That measure saw a second consecutive decline, also the biggest since 2009.

--With assistance from Marco Babic.

To contact the reporter on this story: Fergal O'Brien in Zurich at fobrien@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Craig Stirling at cstirling1@bloomberg.net, David Goodman, Catherine Bosley

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