Global trade growth for this year will surpass the level of 1996, driven by robust demand in North and South America and recovery in Western Europe, the World Trade Organisation said in its annual report issued in Geneva today.

The figures date from August, just at the start of Asia's financial market turbulence and before Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea were forced to seek bail-out packages from the International Monetary Fund.

"Events during the autumn are not captured in the assessment," the WTO admits, but the organisation is still sticking to its 1997 growth forecast of 7 per cent growth in the volume of world trade.

The 1997 annual report said most south-east Asian nations, though facing economic slowdowns, were still expected to grow at rates above the world average in the current year.