Recession (economics)

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Terminology

In economics usage, the term recession is conventionally defined (except in official pronouncements by the United States government) as two consecutive quarters of negative growth of gross domestic product (GDP). In the United States, the official designation of an economic situation as a recession is the responsibility of the National Bureau of Economic Research [1], who define a recession as "a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale retail sales" [2].

Before 1930, what are now termed recessions were referred to as "depressions". That term is nowadays reserved for exceptionally severe or prolonged recessions [3].

The causes of recessions

What happens in a recession

The treatment of recessions

The costs of recessions

  1. Recession: how is that defined?, Bureau of Economics, US Department of Commerce
  2. For a further explanation and some examples see What Is a Recession And Are We In One? Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland October 2008
  3. It has been suggested that the term depression is conventionally applied to a decline in real GDP that exceeds 10%, or one that lasts more than three years. [1]