Littera Scripta (Jan 2011)
The impact of world economy crisis on selected segments of world merchandise trade
Abstract
The paper is devoted to the mutual relationship between world trade and world economy development. The impact of the global economy crisis on the value and volume of world trade and GDP is analyzed. The mutual correlation between world trade and world GDP is calculated (the mutual correlation between both variables is over 90 %). It must be emphasized that, in the monitored time period from 2000 to 2009, the value of world trade and GDP increased significantly both in current (6.8 % respectively 7.6 % a year) and constant US prices (2.4 % respectively 12.3 % a year). In relation to the world merchandise trade, it should be highlighted that, world trade is dominated by manufactured products (over two thirds of value), another important item is trade in fuels and raw materials. The least significant trade item is trade in agricultural and foodstuff products (from the USD value point of view). The crisis of the world economy in 2008-2009 affected world economy and trade development significantly. In this case, the crisis affected especially world trade in fuels and raw materials and trade in manufacturing best – because of their special characteristics. The special ability of agricultural products to face up to the economic crisis is supported not only by the results of the analysis of the year 2009, but it is also supported by the analysis of the world economy results from the year 2001, when the world economy was affected by a limited recession
