Global trade heads downwards

There are more concerns of the global economy as latest figures show that world trade recorded its largest drop since the 2008 financial crisis in the first half of 2015.

The volume fell by half a percent in the three months to June according to the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, which monitors world trade.

The bureau also revised down results for the first quarter this year to a 1.5 percent contraction.

The negative numbers are the latest to show a decline, marking an end to a decades old pattern that saw world trade grow at twice the rate of the global economy.