Will Canada Lead G7 Rate Hikes?
Reuters reports, World trade growth slows in 1st qtr:
Global trade volumes in the first three months of this year were 5.3 percent higher than in the previous quarter, representing slightly slower growth than in recent months but still a healthy rebound from the crisis, data from the Dutch CPB institute showed on Monday.
The CPB, whose data are used by the European Commission and World Bank, said world trade in the three months ended February had grown by 5.8 percent over the previous three months and grown 6.0 percent in the last quarter of 2009.
Trade growth remained strongest in Asia and Latin America, but was relatively low in the euro area, it said in its latest monthly world trade monitor.
On the more volatile monthly figures, world trade volumes were 3.5 percent higher in March than in February, when they grew 1.7 percent.
Trade volumes grew worldwide except for Japanese imports, and both imports and exports in the euro area were strong.
World trade in March was 4 percent below the peak reached in April 2008 and 21 percent above the trough seen in May 2009.
The CPB report also showed a pickup in world industrial production:
On the basis of preliminary data, world industrial production grew by 0.2% in March 2010, following an unrevised 1.0% increase in February. Production continues to grow in all regions, emerging Asia excepted. In March, industrial production was 1.9% below the peak level reached in March 2008. It has risen by an accumulated 12% from the March 2009 trough. In the first quarter of 2010 production was up by 10.9% on year ago, the highest such value in our series (which start in 1991).
Robust global trade helped Canada register a record 6.1% gain in Canadian GDP during Q1. Phred Dvorak of the WSJ reports, Canada’s Growth Sets Stage for Rate Increase:
Canada’s economy grew at the fastest pace in more than a decade during the first quarter of this year, a stronger-than-expected performance that cemented expectations of an interest-rate increase on Tuesday
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