World trade experienced the sharpest fall of the last six years in the first half of 2015, according to the World Trade Monitor, a project of the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis. The World Trade Monitor announced that global trade volume dropped by 0.5 percent on a quarterly basis in the second quarter of the year. Also, the shrinkage rate in the first quarter increased to 1.5 percent. The World Trade Monitor also stressed that world trade saw the largest shrinkage in the first quarter since the 2008 financial crisis. Although trade volume increased in June, specialists suggest that monthly figures are variable but long-term data presents a clearer picture.

Previously, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci evaluated the past six months of foreign trade and said the struggle in global trade is reflected in foreign trade data of many other countries. Zeybekci stressed that they know on what level exports and imports will be on a monthly basis until the end of the year, adding that they closely follow developments in global markets as well. The Economy Minister said even export juggernaut China was significantly affected by the trade global slowdown, which recorded an increase in exports of only 1 percent at that time. He attributed China's relatively good performance to their national currency being fixed to the dollar, which was later devalued under state control as the Chinese economy stumbled.