What of a sharp slowdown in America or even China later this year and next?
Suppose export growth fell to zero next year, as a result of a sharp slowdown in America.
When I was in China in June and July, it seemed just about everyone expected a sharp slowdown.
The German economy grew by 0.7% in 2012, a sharp slowdown on the previous year, preliminary figures show.
Employers added only 88, 000 jobs in March, a sharp slowdown from average gains of 220, 000 in November through February.
But it expanded the target to 5.3% in October as the economy went into a sharp slowdown, hurting its revenue growth.
Fears of a sharp slowdown, or hard landing, due to over-tightening by monetary officials appear to have been mollified by the reports.
Less clear is how the system will cope with a financial shock caused, say, by a sharp slowdown in the United States.
Why has house-price inflation been so robust over the past year despite a recession or at least a sharp slowdown in most economies?
The financial meltdown, which has choked off credit to car buyers and dealers, has resulted in a sharp slowdown in already weak industry sales.
These factors brought down the pace of growth late last year to uncomfortable levels, with some economists predicting a "hard landing", or a sharp slowdown.
But more recent figures for individual economies suggest a sharp slowdown.
Even if these dangers can be skirted, the region is going to experience a sharp slowdown, though perhaps only Japan and Singapore are already in recession.
All of this was entirely predictable since February when we warned of a sharp slowdown in the economy, while Wall Street was talking about a good recovery.
There have been persistent concerns about whether Japan's fragile economic recovery will be able to withstand a sharp slowdown in growth in the US, its main export market.
Money-supply data published earlier Friday showed a sharp slowdown in bank lending to households and companies in December, when banks were still preoccupied with seeing out 2011 safely.
Real-estate consultancy Soufun forecasts a growth rate of 6%-7% in new property under construction in 2012, a sharp slowdown from 20.5% in the first 11 months of 2011.
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Lately there have been fewer worries that the global economy is headed for a sharp slowdown, Melek added, which has allowed all commodities, platinum included, to rally in January.
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Very much Africa's superpower, South Africa has the continent's biggest economy, though this went into recession in May 2009 following a sharp slowdown in the mining and manufacturing sectors.
Chidambaram met some of those demands, setting out fiscal targets that pleased investors, but still left doubts whether the targets could be achieved against the backdrop of a sharp slowdown in economic growth.
There are similar worries in Britain, whose central bank cut interest rates in August as the (so far) gentle deflation of the country's housing bubble contributed to a sharp slowdown in consumer spending.
On the downside, there is a risk that a sharp slowdown in the economy, associated with weak real income growth and the tightening in the supply of credit, pulls inflation materially below the target.
They foresee a sharp slowdown in the housing market, which has underpinned much recent consumer spending as people refinance their mortgages to benefit from lower interest rates and use some of the equity to buy goods.
India's current account deficit widened to a record 5.4% of gross domestic product in the July-September quarter primarily driven by high oil and gold imports and a sharp slowdown in exports witnessed over the past year.
Mirae added their name to the soft landing crowd on Tuesday, saying that issues raised recently about nonperforming loans (NPLs) have raised concerns over the possibility of a sharp slowdown in growth and negative real interest rates.
We're poised to deepen what could be a sharp 2008 slowdown with a weak dollar, tax increases and protectionism, the opposite of the growth policies that are working abroad and have worked here in the past.
The US Congress's budget office last week warned that spending cuts and tax rises could trigger a sharp economic slowdown in 2013.
Hongbin Qu, chief economist for China at HSBC, said the improvement in factory conditions suggests earlier easing measures from Beijing have started to work and should ease concerns of a sharp growth slowdown.
Any trade war is likely to hit the economies of both sides - with the United States already in the throes of a recession and the European Union suffering a sharp economic slowdown.
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