Worldwide merchandise trade flows decreased significantly in 2020, as Covid-19 disrupted economic activity across the globe. This column analyses how various pandemic-related factors shaped international trade flows. Specifically, it estimates how Covid-19 incidence and lockdown restrictions affected the monthly year-over-year growth of imports from China for all destinations to which China exported goods in 2019-2020. It finds that government measures to curb economic activities had a larger impact on a country's imports than the direct health and behavioural effects of the pandemic itself.

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9 June 2021

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VoxEU

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https://voxeu.org/article/2020-trade-impact-covid-19-pandemic

This Blog is published under the centre's Trade programme.