In October last year, the World Trade Organization (WTO) estimate was for trade growth of around 4.7%. The crisis should reduce international trade to between 2.4 and 3.0% this year. The same scenario should occur in the world economic product, which is expected to be between 3.1 and 3.71 PT2T this year. 

"The Ukrainian people are experiencing much suffering and destruction, but the costs in terms of reduced trade and production are likely to be felt by people around the world due to rising food and energy prices and reduced availability of commodities exported by the Russian Federation and Ukraine," says the WTO document, quoted by Lusa.

According to the same document the poorest countries are strongly threatened by the war because they allocate a larger share of their income to food products than rich countries, and an impact on political stability is also expected.

While the Russian and Ukrainian shares in total world production and trade are relatively small, these two states are important suppliers of essential products such as food and energy.

According to the WTO, the Russian Federation and Ukraine combined accounted in 2019 for about 25% of world corn, 15% of barley, and 45% of sunflower.

For its part, the Russian Federation alone accounts for 9.4% of world fuel trade, a share that rises to 20% in the case of gas.