Global trade grows 4.5% in 2017

International trade volumes ticked up 0.3 percent in December compared with the previous month, according to the latest World Trade Monitor report from the CPB Netherlands Bureau of Economic Policy Analysis.    Global trade volumes grew 4.5 percent in 2017 compared with the previous year, according to the latest World Trade Monitor report from the CPB Netherlands Bureau of Economic Policy Analysis.
   “2017 turned out to be a remarkably good year for world trade,” the report said.
   In advanced economies, which include the United States, the European Union and Japan, world imports increased 3.4 percent last year, while exports climbed 4 percent. U.S. trade flows advanced 4.1 percent each in imports and exports, according to CPB Netherlands data.
   Emerging economies, such as in Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, saw imports and exports rise 6.5 percent and 4.9 percent year-over-year, respectively, in 2017.
   Trade growth last year was helped by a fourth quarter in which volumes increased 1.1 percent compared with the third quarter.
   International trade in goods ticked up 0.3 percent in December 2017 from the previous month, following a 2.7 percent month-over-month increase in November, according to the report.