1.   A very sharp increase might have persuaded some Fed officials to push for higher rates to restrain inflation.

2.   As motorists have found to their cost, the result has been a sharp increase in petrol prices at the pump.

3.   Book illustration is a field Marked by sharp increases in price over the last two Decades.

4.   But it is firmly against heavy-handed regulation, such as a sharp increase in mandatory fuel efficiency for cars.

5.   Individual communities saw their own sharp increases in adult cases, with devastating results.

6.   There was ample evidence of sharp increases in crimes of this nature.

7.   ...a sharp increase in productivity.

8.   ...a sharp increase in the price of petrol.

9.   Some experts describe the sharp increase in the number of infants struggling to survive at birth as a new, IVF-caused epidemic.