Impact of the crisis on international trade

The decline in international trade in 2008 triggered by the crisis has been the deepest decline on record, much deeper than during the Great Depression. The fact that the downturn was steeper in terms of value than of volume suggests that a “price effect” also played a part in some countries. The scale of the decline reflects the increasing interdependence of trade, which can accelerate the spread of cyclical effects. Hence, the recession caused by the crisis intensified the drop in world trade, which resulted from the concurrent decline of trade flows in almost every country of the world.