The agency is the latest victim of a regional economic slowdown that has left New York City and State grappling with prospective budget gaps.

Although Mercosur expanded trade among its four members to $18.2 billion last year from $3.6 billion in 1991, a severe regional economic slowdown has strained relations between Brazil and Argentina.

Throughout the Northeast, governors and mayors are struggling with similar budget problems in the wake of a regional economic slowdown.

Job growth has stopped in New Jersey and slowed in New York this year, in yet another indication of a regional economic slowdown.

In other words, the national economy will pick up before Long Island slows down, thus averting a regional slowdown.

Moreover, the regional slowdown has hit just as the early euphoria about Vietnam's opening gives way to sober realism about its obstructionist bureaucracy and the slow pace of change.

Torrance survived the deindustrialization, regional economic slowdowns and national recessions in the 1970s to 2000s.

Gerard Cassidy, an analyst with the stock brokerage firm of Tucker Anthony Inc. in Portland, Me., points to other indicators of a regional slowdown.

Nynex Hurt by a regional economic slowdown, Nynex reported a quarterly loss of $43.7 million, compared with a net income of $342.2 million, or $1.74 a share, in the 1988 period.

B2 In a regional economic slowdown, job growth has stopped in New Jersey and slowed in New York this year.