GENEVA, March 19 (Reuters) - World trade growth remained on a sharp downward trend in January, as volumes plunged at the start of the year, the Dutch CPB economic institute said on Thursday.
Trade growth in the 12 months ended January slowed to 0.6 percent from 2.4 percent in the year to December and a high in the current cycle of 9.4 percent in August 2007, said the CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, whose figures are used by the European Commission and World Bank.
This trend was last negative in 2002, data in its latest world trade monitor show.
The CPB data reflect sharp falls in exports around the world, particularly from Asia, as the recession hits demand.
Trade volumes in January were 17 percent lower than a year earlier, it said.
The IMF forecast in January that trade will contract 2.8 percent this year, the first fall since 1982, after growing 4.1 percent in 2008.
The institute said trade in the three months ended January was a record 40.7 percent down at an annual rate from the preceding three months, after growing at an annual 9.2 percent in the three months ended October.
This reflected a 53 percent drop at an annual rate in emerging countries' imports and a 68.7 percent fall at an annual rate in Japan's exports.
On the more volatile monthly figures, world trade dropped an unprecedented 6.6 percent in January from the previous month after a revised 5.9 percent drop in December. The institute has been tracking trade data since 1991. (For the full trade monitor go to: http://www.cpb.nl/eng/research/sector2/data/trademonitor.pdf ) (Reporting by Jonathan Lynn; Editing by Stephanie Nebehay)