It seeks to examine how they have performed in the global economic conditions of 2014-15 and to identify trends in their performance. The chapter is split into two parts: the first is thematic and focuses on areas ranging from economic growth to the environment, the second examines these themes in their regional contexts and discusses small states in each of the Commonwealth regions - namely, Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and Americas, the Pacific and Asia. In 2014, the global growth rate was 2.6 per cent, while 2015 saw the growth rate decline to 2.5 per cent (World Bank 2016a). Central to the global economy’s weak performance has been China’s sharper-than-expected slowdown, the largely unforeseen and unprecedented oil price decline, tightening global financial conditions and rising geopolitical tensions.