Figures produced by Airports Council International (ACI), which represents most of the world's bigger air gateways, show that airfreight traffic continued its recovery in January. Air cargo volumes as a whole were up by 5.7% year on year. International freight volumes continued to post relatively higher growth with an increase of 9.5%, whereas domestic air cargo traffic fell by 2.8% year on year in January. The decline in domestic airfreight flows was attributed by ACI in the main to business closures in the Asia Pacific region during the Chinese New Year holidays. The trade body noted that "heightened business confidence through inventory build-ups and increased export orders remained apparent for the near term, despite the looming uncertainty of trade policies in the face of protectionist sentiments that swept many countries." Moreover: "The political uncertainty in the second half of 2016 waned," ACI noted. However, it also pointed out: "While air freight volumes continued to gain momentum, with a spillover effect in 2016, the Chinese New Year, which had a tremendous impact on air freight shipments, distorted the figures and year-over-year comparisons." Regionally, all areas saw year on year improvements in cargo traffic in January. Africa volumes were up by 9.6% year on year, Asia Pacific by 4.5%, Europe by 8.3%, Latin America and the Caribbean by 2.5%, the Middle East by 8.2% and North America by 5.1%.