Global trade is likely to continue to grow over the next three months, according to a new report from leading logistics company DHL.

The firm has published its first DHL Global Trade Barometer, which provides an outlook on future trade and the prospects for the global economy, based on AI-assisted evaluations on the significant amounts of logistics data generated through DHL's business.

For January 2018, the headline index figure has been calculated at 64 - above the 50.0 mark that separates growth from contraction, but slightly below the values calculated for previous months.

It means that world trade is still growing, but losing momentum due to weakening prospects for Chinese and Japanese trade, which is only partially offset by improved prospects for India, South Korea and the UK.

DHL expects that data from this index could be integrated into forecast models by banks, associations or economic research institutes in future, meaning greater attention will be paid to future reports.