WTO: Global Trade in Goods, Services Expanded by 4.7% in 2025

Oluchi Chibuzor

The World Trade Organisation (WTO), has revealed that global trade in goods and services expanded approximately by 4.7 per cent in 2025, significantly above the rate of global economic growth at 2.9 per cent.

The Deputy Director-General of WTO, Jennifer Nordquist, disclosed this at the launch of the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre’s Future of Trade Report 2026.

Nordquist emphasised that the WTO would continue to provide the foundation for the large majority of global trade, even as the trading system adapts to new technologies, shifting supply chains and geopolitical uncertainty.

She stressed the importance of advancing WTO reform while preserving the predictability and transparency on which businesses depend.

She noted that at a time when businesses, governments, and international organizations are all grappling with profound change, initiatives like this one make an important contribution by helping people look beyond the immediate headlines and think more strategically about where global trade is heading.

According to her, “And there is certainly no shortage of issues to discuss, artificial intelligence is transforming production, services, and trade operations, supply chains are adapting to geopolitical tensions, which includes dealing with good ol’ fashioned geography, not just technology, new technologies are changing how goods move, how services are delivered, and how firms compete. Taken together, these developments raise important questions about the future of world trade and the institutions that underpin it.

“The headlines often focus on fragmentation, de-risking, and frictions. Yet the data tell a more nuanced story. Global trade in goods and services expanded by approximately 4.7 percent in 2025, significantly above the rate of global economic growth (2.9 percent) – almost double — and a significantly better performance than even our own economists had predicted (-0.2 percent).”