- India ranks ninth in the world for the breadth of its merchandise trade, showing the reach of its exports and imports into global markets.
- The relationship between the United States and China is deteriorating, while Russia’s global connection is at an all-time low.
- Singapore leads the list of the most globalized countries, followed by the Netherlands and Ireland.
- There is no worldwide trend towards regionalization or a larger division in the world economy across hostile geopolitical blocs.
New Delhi: DHL and New York University’s Stern School of Business today released the DHL Global Connectedness Report 2024, the most thorough analysis of globalization’s current state and trajectory. It monitors how trade, capital, information, and people travel throughout the world and assesses the globalization of 181 countries and regions.
According to the analysis, globalization reached a new high in 2022 and is expected to remain close to that level in 2023, despite a series of global shocks over the last decade, including the COVID-19 pandemic, wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the US-China trade war, and the UK’s exit from the EU. The evidence significantly contradicts the claim that global flows have reversed. Trade growth plays an important role in stimulating global connectedness.
In 2022, the share of world output exchanged overseas returned to a record high. Following a slowdown in 2023, trade growth is expected to accelerate in 2024.
The globalization of information flows has been exceptionally significant over the last two decades, despite the fact that recent data show a slowing in their rise, which is attributable in part to reduced research collaboration between the United States and China.
Corporate globalization is on the rise, as corporations extend their international presence and increase their overseas revenues.
Releasing the report, ,DHL Express CEO John Pearson emphasized the importance of globalization in reshaping the world, stating that it empowers individuals, businesses, and nations to flourish, fostering an interconnected world that is more prosperous and poised for further growth.
The analysis confirms the significant potential for continued growth in global flows. It pegs the world’s current level of globalization at only 25%, on a scale from 0% (meaning no flows cross national borders) to 100% (borders and distance have ceased to matter at all).
India’s “market share” is highest in neighboring nations in South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
R.S. Subramanian, SVP South Asia, DHL Express, stated, “While India’s global connectedness rating reflects its current economic standing, the report makes it clear: the world should anticipate India’s international participation to grow significantly in the next years. We see enormous possibilities for further global integration for India, and our domestic economic boom provides an opportunity for even larger international partnership. India’s trade relations are poised for major growth.”
Singapore ranks first among the most globalized countries, followed by the Netherlands and Ireland.
43 countries were more globally linked, while 38 saw their levels of connectivity decrease. Further research indicates that Europe is the most globally connected region, followed by North America, the Middle East, and North Africa. The relationship between the United States and China is deteriorating, and Russia’s global connection is at an all-time low, but there is no deeper divide in the global economy between opposing blocs.
According to the DHL Global Connectedness Report, US-China ties are deteriorating, with proportions of both nations’ flows involving each other falling by around one-quarter since 2016. However, both countries remain strongly connected, with bigger flows than virtually any other pair of states.
Russia and Europe have split, leaving Russia with a historic reduction in connection, more than twice as big as any prior decline among the world’s 20 major economies. At the same time, the data analysis shows that there is no larger divide in the global economy between competing geopolitical blocs.
Furthermore, the paper demonstrates that forecasts of a global transition from globalization to regionalization have yet to be borne out in international flow patterns. In fact, the majority of international flows take place over steady or even greater distances, with a decreasing share occurring within key geographic regions. Only North America demonstrates a definite shift toward more regionalized trade.
Steven Altman, a senior research scholar at NYU Stern’s Center for the Future of Management, argues that deglobalization is a risk rather than a reality. He emphasizes the resilience of global flows and the need to avoid making deglobalization a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The acclaimed DHL Global Connectedness Report (formerly DHL Global Connectedness Index) has been published on a regular basis since 2011, and it analyzes 15 forms of international trade, capital, information, and people movements to provide credible results on globalization trends.
The 2024 version is based on about 9 million data points. It ranks the connectedness of 181 countries, which account for 99.7 percent of the global GDP and 98.7 percent of the population. A collection of 181 one-page nation profiles contains succinct descriptions of each country’s globalization patterns.
The report was commissioned by DHL and written by Steven A. Altman and Caroline R. Bastian of New York University’s Stern School of Business.
