00:01Trade growth forecasts for 2026 were already grim before the start of the war in the Middle East.
00:08But the World Trade Organization warned on Thursday that high oil and gas prices due to the war could make
00:15things even worse.
00:17The organization's director-general presented a new report in Geneva in Switzerland.
00:23If sustained, however, the recent rise in energy prices linked to the Middle East conflict could shave another 0.5
00:32percentage points of off-merchandise trade volume growth this year, lowering it from 1.9 to 1.4 percent.
00:41A similar pattern is expected in services trade, where a baseline forecast shows world commercial services trade volume growth, slowing
00:50from 5.3 percent last year to 4.8 percent this year, before picking up to 5.1 percent next
00:56year.
00:58US and Israeli attacks against Iran have led Tehran to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of
01:05the world's crude oil supplies get shipped.
01:09This has led Brent crude oil prices to surge to more than $115 a barrel.
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