The World Trade Organisation today said that global trade growth is expected to plummet by up to a third in 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic. It has warned that the numbers would be ugly and world trade is expected to fall by between 13 percent and 32 percent in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts normal economic activity and life around the world. WTO said in a statement that there were a wide range of possibilities for how trade would be hit by the unprecedented health crisis. However, WTO chief Roberto Azevedo warned the downturn may well be the deepest economic recession or downturn of our lifetimes.

In its main annual forecast, the 164-member WTO pointed out that trade had already been slowing in 2019, before the emergence of the novel coronavirus.

More than half of humanity has been asked to stay at home and economic activity has ground to a virtual standstill in many places.