EXPERT GROUP CONCLUDES MEETING ON GLOBAL ECONOMIC PROSPECTS, NOTES GROWING IMPORTANCE OF TRADE
Press Release
DEV/2143
EXPERT GROUP CONCLUDES MEETING ON GLOBAL ECONOMIC PROSPECTS, NOTES GROWING IMPORTANCE OF TRADE
19970402 NEW YORK, 27 March (DESIPA) -- The Ad Hoc Expert Group on the Short- and Medium-term Prospects of the World Economy (Project LINK) concluded its annual spring meeting today by focusing on the close connection between world economic growth and international trade. In the final session, devoted to technical problems of assessing past and future economic trends, Professor Peter Pauly of the Project LINK Centre at the University of Toronto, Canada, presented a study on the nexus between trade and growth, based on a detailed examination of changing patterns in individual countries and industries.A presentation by the Secretariat noted the strong relationship during the last decade between world trade growth and world economic activity, as world exports rose twice as fast as world production. The factors involved in this rapid expansion of world trade and in an apparent slowdown in trade growth in 1996 were analysed, notably the role of price and income effects on external sector in Europe during 1996.
The annual fall meeting of Project LINK has been scheduled for 22-26 September 1997 in Kuala Lumpur, to be hosted by the Malaysian Institute for Economic Research. In accordance with past practice, the meeting will focus on a technical review of the world economic prospects, growth in Asia and the relevance of Asian countries' policies to regional policies. The meeting will also focus on national economic modelling and its linkage with a comprehensive model of world economic activity and international trade.
Project LINK is an international economic research network of more than 70 economists from all over the world led by Nobel Laureate Lawrence R. Klein of the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to reviewing global, regional and country outlooks and policies, the experts, during their spring meeting, held special sessions on world commodity markets, economic integration in Europe and the role of developing countries in the world trading system.
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