World trade may start to slow down. He reports it the latest reading from the Goods Trade Barometer, the composite indicator anticipating the evolution of trade in goods conceived by the World Trade Organization to provide an early indication of the trend in world trade compared to recent trends. Values of the barometer above 100 are associated with trading volumes of above-average goods, while values below 100 indicate a decrease compared to the average.

The latest reading, presented today by the WTO, is related to last April and refers to the expected following evolution of trade. The April value of the barometric index is 101.7 and is slightly lower than the January value of 102.3, which suggests that trade growth may start to slow down, even if it is higher than the Reference value of 100 as has been the case since the beginning of 2025. The WTO noted that trade in goods appears to have remained resilient in the first half of 2026, despite the difficulties arising from the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, which seem to have been partly offset by the growing investment-related demand for electronic components in artificial intelligence.

In the last reading, the indexes components of the barometer are all close to their value of Common reference of 100, except for the index of components (105.5), which rose significantly above the trend. The index of agricultural commodities (98.9) and the index of automotive products (99.8) are both slightly below below the trend, while the highly predictive index of orders (100.5) is slightly above. The indices related to the transport of goods, including air transport (102.2) and containerized maritime transport (102.4 compared to 101.7 of last December's reading), continue to report expansion, albeit at a slower pace than some month ago.