"The gloomsters have been saying for some time that global trade was already suffering from the imminent escalation of the US-China trade war," says Jonathan Allum on The Blah! But the data suggest otherwise.
Global trade volume slipped 1.1% in September, but that followed a record peak the previous month. An index tracking containers moving through ports has been treading water for two months, but has yet to fall.
Meanwhile, Chinese goods exports to all countries grew 15.6% year-on-year in October; those to the US, which comprise a fifth of the total, rose 13.2%, says Gabriel Wildau in the Financial Times. This has so far, at least defied "predictions that American tariffs would hit demand for Chinese goods".
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