Global trade is on course for its worst year since the financial crisis, with only 0.3% growth anticipated in 2019, according to Dutch bank ING.

The downturn in world trade growth at the end of 2018, in which trade levels dropped more than 3%, has been exacerbated by damage from the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China, according to an analyst note from the Dutch bank.

ING Head of International Trade Analysis Raoul Leering projected that while 2020 is likely to show growth of around 2%, that improvement could be wiped out if the trade war between the world's largest economies drags on into next year.

The figures represent a marked decline from the 3.3% trade growth in 2018 and 4.8% in 2017, prior to the implementation of a series of combative trade policies by President Donald Trump's administration.

Leering suggested that trade will adjust to better-than-expected first-quarter economic growth in the U.S., the eurozone and China, but that global trade volumes still have substantial catching up to do before they can match those of last year.

After the catch-up is completed, adjusting to higher levels of GDP and industrial production, ING projects that trade growth should reach 1.2% in 2019. However, analysts anticipate that the ongoing negative effects of tariff hikes from the U.S. and China will drag this down to 0.6%.