GENEVA: International trade volumes exceeded pre-crisis levels for the first time in December, and global trade expanded by a record 15.1 percent in the whole of 2010, the Dutch CPB economic institute said on Wednesday. The data were further evidence of a buoyant global economy, with the full-year expansion in trade more than compensating for the 13.0 percent contraction in 2009 in the wake of the financial crisis, it said in its monthly world trade monitor. The 2010 and 2009 figures were respectively the biggest expansion and contraction since the institute started compiling the data in 1991. Gains were shared unevenly, with trade expanding the most in the emerging economies of Asia and Latin America. Import and export growth in US were close to the world average.
