General trends and drivers of world trade in 2015

Growth in the volume of world merchandise trade remained sluggish in 2015, at 2.7 per cent as measured by the average of exports and imports. This figure was revised downward from a preliminary estimate of 2.8 per cent released in April 2016 based on available data at the time. Slow global trade growth was accompanied by a modest increase in world GDP, which grew 2.4 per cent in real terms at market exchange rates in the same period. Several factors contributed to the lacklustre performance, including economic slowdown in China, recessions in other large developing economies including Brazil, falling prices for oil and other primary commodities, strong fluctuations in exchange rates, and financial volatility driven by divergent monetary policies in developed countries. Faster economic growth and rising import demand in developed countries partly made up for weaker demand elsewhere, leaving trade growth and output growth nearly unchanged compared with the previous year (2.8 per cent and 2.5 per cent, respectively, in 2014).