The gloomy mood continues on 22 September, with data showing that growth in the eurozone's private sector shrank for the first time in two years.

That recession and slower growth have shrunk tax revenues is predictable enough.

In 2006, Business 2.0 magazine named him one of "10 people who don't matter" because the growth of Linux has shrunk Torvalds' individual impact.

But the growth in those assessments, and the tax revenue along with it, shrank to 8.2 percent in 1991 and 4.6 percent last year.

The O.E.C.D.'s economic policy committee said growth in the industrial democracies would shrink to 1.75 percent next year, compared with previous predictions of 2.25 percent.

Similarly, the organization predicted that Germany's growth would shrink by 1.9 percent this year, compared with an estimate of 1.2 percent growth that it made in December.

Faster growth will shrink Japan's huge trade surpluses, he said, by increasing domestic demand.

Italy's growth shrank to 1.9 percent in 1990 from 3.6 percent in 1989.

But this growth does shrink over time.

During the Iran-Iraq War military expenditures increased dramatically (while economic growth was shrinking) and the number of people employed in the military increased fivefold, to one million.