 Dalian port, China (Getty) Friday’s GDP data out of China (the economy grew at an annual rate of 7.8 per cent in the third quarter of this year) has illustrated what many economists see as the “new normal”. China is growing slower than it once did. But, given its increasingly outsize role over the past two decades what does that mean for global trade? Together with Valentina Romei from our stats department and the helpful people at the WTO we have been running some of the numbers. Here are a few interesting points to pass on… China is now the world’s biggest trading nation… According to Coleman Nee, one of the data gurus at the WTO, China overtook the US as the biggest trader in the world (exports + imports) in the first half of this year. Continue reading » | 
