Why is global trade holding up despite war and shipping disruptions?

The World Trade Organization has sharply upgraded its global merchandise trade growth outlook for this year, lifting its earlier projection from 1.9% to 3.9% after cross-border goods commerce expanded far faster than forecasters anticipated.

Much of that unexpected strength is powered by massive corporate investment in artificial intelligence hardware, where worldwide shipments of semiconductors and data centre servers jumped 67% year-on-year during the first half of the year.

At the same time, supply networks showed remarkable flexibility when Middle East fighting disrupted transport corridors, slashing regional liquefied natural gas exports by 47% while alternative exporters kept the global drop to around 1%, leading Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to emphasize, The figures demonstrate the resilience of trade in practice.