Global economic output to only grow by 2.3 percent in 2019

This poor performance comes on the back of significant growth in 2017 and 2018, according to UNCTAD, the UN’s trade and development agency in Geneva.

Global trade has been backsliding this year, UN economists said on Tuesday, estimating that it's set to end the year 2.4 percent down, with an overall value of $19 trillion.

This poor performance comes on the back of significant growth in 2017 and 2018, according to UNCTAD, the UN's trade and development agency in Geneva.

In its 2019 Handbook of Statistics, it says that global economic output will only grow by 2.3 percent this year - 0.7 percentage points less than last year.

And it believes that the services sector will increase by only 2.7 percent - to $6 trillion – which is a "significant slowdown" compared with the last two years.

Among the reasons for the falling value of trade, UNCTAD cites the high price of fuel in 2018, which has not continued until 2019.

Maritime transport has also lost momentum, with volumes rising by only 2.7 percent last year, compared with 4.7 percent in 2017.