11.   The year the economy eluded dire predictions of a severe slowdown and continued humming as we entered the next millennium.

12.   And with the severe slowdown in Web-related business activity, the revisions have been especially dramatic this quarter.

13.   Corning resumed production last month at two of the five optical-fiber plants temporarily idled in October by a severe slowdown in the telecommunications industry.

14.   Economic woes that started to shake Southeast and East Asian countries in July last year have caused widespread price increases, massive lay-offs and a severe economic slowdown.

15.   Japan is struggling to emerge from its most severe economic slowdown in decades.

16.   Most recent data, particularly a drop in jobs and rising unemployment claims, have pointed to a severe slowdown.

17.   The cost-cutting plan mirrors the strategy taken by other technology companies that have been hit by the severe slowdown in the U.S. economy.

18.   The Danube suffered a severe slowdown in shipping during the Bosnian war, when Yugoslavia was under international embargo.

19.   The goal is to keep the severe economic slowdown from developing into an outright recession.

20.   The leaders focused on ways to keep a severe slowdown in the United States from pushing the global economy into a recession.