The sharpest global sell-off of the 2015–2016 Chinese stock-market crash began on August 24, 2015.
That Monday became known as “Black Monday” in China after the Shanghai Composite fell 8.49%, its largest single-day percentage decline since 2007. Market losses spread internationally as investors worried about China’s economic growth, falling commodity prices, and the effects of earlier Chinese market volatility.
The turbulence followed a dramatic rise in Chinese share prices that began in 2014. The boom was supported partly by margin borrowing, so falling prices forced some investors to sell, adding pressure to the decline. China’s August 11 currency adjustment also increased concerns about the health of the economy.
The event is distinct from the 1997 Asian financial crisis and from the 2015 Swiss franc shock. It was a major episode in global markets, but it did not produce a banking collapse on the scale of 2008.