1.   They did not specifically work on, much less analyze, their stubborn shooting slump.

2.   Businesses are under intense pressure to lower prices amid a stubborn slump in consumption.

3.   Investors had hoped Japan would promise more government spending to kick start its moribund economy, now in the eighth year of a stubborn slump.

4.   Japan has been mired in a stubborn economic slump for more than ten years.

5.   Japan is struggling to pull out of a stubborn economic slump.

6.   Koizumi says broad reforms are needed to lift Japan out of a stubborn economic slump that has lasted more than a decade.