24 December 2025

The global trade volume decreased by 1.3% in October 2025 compared to September. That month saw an increase of 1.1%. This is shown by the monthly CPB World Trade Monitor. There is a decline in import volume for China (-5.6%) and Japan (-4.2%), and an increase for the United Kingdom (+4.1%). For exports, we see decreases for Japan (-3.7%), the eurozone (-2.9%), emerging Asia excluding China (-2.8%) and China (-2.7%). For Latin America, export volume rises by 6.0%. Due to the partial shutdown of the US government, official trade figures for the United States for October are not available. These figures are therefore estimated based on bilateral trade flows with the United States main trading partners. The estimates amount to a month-on-month increase of 0.4% for import volume and a decrease of 0.3% for exports. 

The CPB World Trade Monitor (WTM) is an instrument for bringing together, aggregating, and summarizing worldwide monthly data on international trade and industrial production.

In the WTM, ‘trade’ is trade in goods (also referred to as ‘merchandise trade’). ‘Production’ is industrial production, that is: value added in mining, manufacturing, and utilities (also referred to as ‘industry excluding construction’).

The production monitor covers 85 countries worldwide. These countries account for about 97% of global industrial production. The trade monitor covers 81 countries. Coverage of world trade is almost 99%.

Global developments in international trade and industrial production, October 2025:

  • The global trade volume decreased by 1.3% in October compared to September, following a 1.1% increase in September (equal to initial estimate).
  • The momentum of world trade was 0.7% in October (not annualized; September momentum: 1.1% equal to initial estimate).
  • Global industrial production decreased by 0.1% in October compared to September (September development: 1.0%, equal to initial estimate).
  • The momentum of global industrial production was 0.5% in October (not annualized; September momentum: 0.5%, equal to initial estimate).

The next monthly CPB World Trade Monitor will be published on January 23 at 12:00.

The CPB publishes the World Trade Monitor monthly on behalf of the European Commission as an instrument to monitor the development of world trade. It takes two months before the figures are available. The next CPB World Trade Monitor for the reporting month November 2025 will be published on January 23, 2026. For questions, contact wtm@cpb.nl.

Also read the accompanying CPB Background Document The CPB World Trade Monitor: technical description (update 2023). If you wish, we can send you an email as soon as a new update of the CPB World Trade Monitor is published. To subscribe to the alert service, register on the registration page for Publications for policymakers.

The World Trade Monitor is co-financed by DG ECFIN (Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs of the European Commission).