Statistics Explained

Glossary:Business cycle

A business cycle describes the expansions and contractions of economic activity in an economy over a period of time.

The economy considered may be a country, the euro area or the European Union (EU). The evolution of economic activity is expressed as a percentage change of an economic indicator: production, hours worked, employment, gross domestic product (GDP), etc. The business cycle is usually represented in a graph showing the ups and downs of economic growth over time.


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