APEC economy, trade in fair growth despite global uncertainty: report

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Despite great uncertainty in the global economy, the 21-member APEC bloc registered fair enough growth in trade and economy, according to a report released Friday.

Though down from the 12.1-percent growth in December of 2011 to a moderate 4.6-percent growth in May 2012 in nominal U.S. dollar value of merchandise trade for APEC member economies, it was still enough for the bloc as a whole to remain atop the development heap by comparison with other economies in the world, the report said.

The rest of the world contracted by 5.6 percent in nominal value of merchandise trade in May this year, according to the report, which was produced by the APEC Policy Support Unit, an independent APEC research team that supplies regular economy and trade analysis based on data collected from across the Asia-Pacific region.

The International Monetary Fund has predicted a slight increase on growth for APEC, with 4.2 percent of growth in 2012 as against 4.1 percent of growth last year. The Washington-based institution forecast a 4.5-percent growth for APEC in 2013, well ahead of global development trend.

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