More recently, weakness in foreign demand has extended to emerging market economies, which now account for about half of world output and have been an important source of growth for more than the past decade.
Growing recognition of this weakness pushed the dollar up further to 15 percent above its level last summer, and has contributed to a more general tightening of financial conditions in the past few months. Much of the focus has been on China, whose large size and double-digit growth rate put it at the center of a powerful global commodity super-cycle over the past decade.