January 06, 2014
IRU Road Transport Indices highlight different recovery paces of 63 countries* worldwide.

Geneva - The IRU's Road Transport Indices show that after thedouble dip recession that hit the EU in 2009 and 2012, economic growth seems to be gradually returning, as evidenced by a slight 0.4% increase in tonnes transported at the end of 2013.

IRU Head of Sustainable Development, Jens Hügel, stresses, "A detailed analysis of the latest economic figures show that there is a general upward trend in Europe. However, Europe remains outpaced by BRIC and TRACECA countries, which show better performances in transport volumes in 2013 and are likely to continue doing so in 2014."

BRIC and TRACECA road transport operators carried 5.1% and 3.4% more volume respectively than EU transport operators. These numbers are expected to reach 5% and 3.7% respectively in 2014, while EU transport volumes will increase by only 1.3%.

"BRIC and TRACECA governments perfectly understand that systemic innovation and investment in efficient road transport are instrumental in driving economic growth. They should now build on this success by effectively implementing tried and tested multilateral trade and transport facilitation instruments, such as the UN Harmonization and TIR Conventions, allowing for efficient and secure multimodal international transport," Mr Hügel concluded.

*Countries covered by the IRU Road Transport Indices that monitor GDP growth, road freight transport volumes and new vehicle registrations.

** BRIC countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China.
*** TRACECA countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Romania, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan

distributed by