Recession

A recession is usually defined in macroeconomics as a fall of a country's real Gross Domestic Product in two or more successive quarters of a year. A recession may also involve falling prices, which can lead to a depression; alternatively it may involve sharply rising prices (inflation), in which case this process is known as stagflation. Most recessions lead to falling inflation rates or what is called disinflation.

External links

• The Thirty-Five Most Tumultuous Years in Monetary History: Shocks and Financial Trauma, by Robert Aliber. Presented at the IMF
• Recession? Depression? What's the difference? (About.com)