Describing Trends

Vocabulary describing economic growth and decline is one of the most important areas for students of Business English. This vocabulary is especially needed to accurately communicate the ups and downs of business when making a presentation using graphs and statistics. The following lesson employs a number of graphs as a means of practicing this area of vocabulary

Word	Part of Speech
increase	verb: to increase, is increasing, has increased, increased noun: an increase of $5,554m an increase in spending of $5,554m
decrease	verb: to decrease, is decreasing, has decreased, decreased noun: a decrease of 0.7% a decrease in spending of 0.7%
rise	verb: to rise, is rising, has risen, rose noun: a rise of $5,554m a rise in spending of $5,554m
fall	verb: to fall, is falling, has fallen, fell noun: a fall of 0.7% a fall in spending of 0.7%
drop	verb: to drop, is dropping, has dropped, dropped noun: a drop of 0.7% a drop in spending of 0.7%
to be financed by	verb: to be financed by, is financed by, has been financed by, was financed by meaning: to be paid for (e.g. money is transferred from one budget to another)
_ing forms	After an introductory clause that includes some analysis; e.g. 'Spending rose in all three years', an '_ing' form can be used to describe numbers and dates.

Going Up

• rose
• increased
• went up
• grew

Going Down

• decreased
• fell
• dropped
• declined

No Change

• stayed the same
• remained constant
• levelled off
• stabilised

Up and Down

• fluctuated
• zig-zagged
• fluttered
• undulated

Small Changes - Adjectives / Adverbs

• gently
• gradually
• slightly
• steadily

Big Changes - Adverbs / Adjectives

• suddenly
• sharply
• dramatically
• steeply
• a lot

Low Points

• bottomed out
• reached a low