Econbrowser: Trade Procyclicality in the Current Recession: The View from the US

Econbrowser: Trade Procyclicality in the Current Recession: The View from the US:

the current pace of trade activity as worse than that during the Great Depression.

First, let's take a look at the exports-to-GDP and imports-to-GDP ratios.

Figure 1: Non-agricultural goods exports to GDP ratio (blue), and non-oil goods imports to GDP ratio (red). NBER recession dates shaded gray. Source: BEA, GDP 2009Q2 3rd release of 30 Sep 2009, NBER, and author's calculations.