Word: slump
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...stock prices shooting up again after a week of historic losses. But it's still far too early to celebrate. The measures need to prove their effectiveness by unfreezing lending. And there's still the huge challenge - no less urgent than fixing the banking system - of preventing an economic slump...
This grim outlook presents some particularly tricky challenges to those in charge. In previous downturns, such as the early 1990s slump, governments typically ramped up state spending in order to offset the drop in business activity. But this time, the gigantic cost of bank bailouts will leave national treasuries with little room for maneuver. Indeed, the bailout plans - under which stricken banks will receive direct injections of taxpayer money to strengthen their capital base, while governments provide guarantees aimed at getting banks to lend to one another again - may well throw government finances seriously out of kilter...
...everyone is so lucky. Recent industry research shows that falling purchasing power and consumer fear of a looming downturn have caused spending in France's cafés and restaurants to slump around 20% this year. Nearly 3,000 of the nation's restaurants closed down or went bankrupt in the first half of 2008. That wave of failure may well rise as newcomers who relied on credit to get started find themselves stretched to make their payments as revenues slump. "If I were 30, starting out with loans to reimburse, I'd be in big trouble," says Bonduel, relieved...
...permanence," says Greg Priddy, oil analyst for the Eurasia Group in Washington. Instead of believing that gas prices would finally fall again, many began changing their daily habits - they started driving the smaller car in a two-car garage or consolidating shopping trips. That has meant a huge slump in Americans' gas use. Even before the market meltdown, Americans consumed 800,000 barrels of oil a day less during the first half of this year than the same period last year. As demand fell, so did prices, and as prices have fallen, investors have begun pulling money...
...rich countries the slump has come at a bad time. As the oil price began rising during the past few years, governments and big oil companies plowed billions into exploring and developing new fields in Russia, Angola, Mexico, Brazil and Saudi Arabia - projects whose costs have more than doubled in the past few years, in part because soaring steel prices drove up drilling equipment costs and oil-rig rentals. Just as global demand has begun to slow, millions more barrels of oil a day from new fields have hit the world market...