Stock markets around the world fell to 52-week lows in late August on the back of concerns about the Chinese economy. These issues started, to some extent, with the Chinese stock markets, which have been through something of a boom-and-bust cycle this year. However, the latest sell-off was triggered by new economic data pointing to a worse-than-expected slowdown in the country's economy. The impact of this news reverberated around the world. It pushed the Dow to its lowest for more than a year, with the Index falling 6.20% in the six weeks between week 28 and 34, with most of those losses coming in the final week. Similarly, the FTSE 100 was down 8.88%, the CAC 40 lost 7.51% and the DAX was among the heaviest hit European indexes with a 12.24% loss. Meanwhile, in Asia, the Nikkei 225 was down 6.26%. It is fair to say that a bubble had built up in the Chinese stock market in the early months of this year, and the losses seen earlier in the summer could be characterised as a return to more sensible levels.
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