Global Trade To Fall By 10%

The World Bank predicts in a new report, that worldwide trade will plummet nearly 10% this year, and output will fall by 2.9%. Developing countries will be hit hard by falls in private investment, the World Bank said, seeing nearly $1 trillion less in foreign investment this year than they did two years ago, CNN Money reports.

In 2007, poor countries took in $1.2 trillion in foreign investment. This year the figure is likely to be $363 billion — less than a third of the record 2007 amount, and just over half last year’s total of $707 billion.

Industrial production has fallen sharply in the past year, as companies worry that consumers will not have the money to buy their products. Manufacturing has dropped by 15% in the developed world since August 2008, and 10% in the developing world excluding China, the bank said.