Slowbalisation
Topic: Globalisation and MNCs · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Slowbalisation is the slowing of globalisation since the 2008 global financial crisis. World trade still grows, but it grows no faster than world GDP. So the trade-to-GDP ratio (trade as a share of a country's or the world's total output) has stopped rising and stays flat. Countries are still linked, but links are no longer deepening at the old speed.
Example
The World Bank's WDR 2020 says the share of world trade linked to global value chains peaked around 2008 and has stagnated since. Several shocks slowed trade further: the US-China trade war (2018), COVID-19 supply disruptions (2020-21) and the Russia-Ukraine war (2022). Services and digital trade still keep setting records, which helps India as a services exporter.
Don't confuse with
- Deglobalisation: an actual reversal, where trade and investment fall compared with world output. Slowbalisation means growth has slowed, not reversed.
- Hyperglobalisation: the earlier phase, about 1990-2008, when trade grew much faster than GDP.