A monthly measure of world trade produced by the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, monitored by the International Monetary Fund and other leading institutions, found the volume of world trade in goods was unchanged in August after robust 2.5 per cent growth in July.

A less volatile measure, which compares the three months to August with the preceding three months, was 5 per cent higher on an annualised basis, much higher than the anaemic 0.4 per cent increase in the three months to May. “Most noticeable in the three months up to August is the rapid rise in US exports,” the bureau said. These shot up by 30.3 per cent.

But in the longer term, comparing the 12 months to August with the same period a year earlier, trade growth continued to slow. On this basis it sank to 5.2 per cent in August, much lower than the record high of 9.3 per cent in November 2006 and the lowest since global trade was recovering from recession in the US and elsewhere in 2001.