World trade boom sails Into 2018 as Trump threatens barriers

(Dec 1): It was meant to be the year of the trade war. Instead, it was the year of the trade boom.

As 2017 draws to a close, the International Monetary Fund is projecting the volume of trade in goods and services will have climbed 4.2% over the year, up from 2.4% in 2016. That would be the first time trade has outpaced output growth since 2014 and harks back to the pre-crisis days when such outperformance was a regular occurrence.

Among the winners: big manufacturing powerhouses such as Germany and China and producers of electronics like South Korea, which Thursday raised its benchmark interest rate for the first time since 2011 after months of surging exports. Caterpillar Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. are some of the companies that are cashing in.

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