What Is a Business Cycle? A Beginner’s Guide
The business cycle describes recurring expansions and contractions in economic activity. Learn its phases, drivers, indicators, market effects, and policy responses.
Business cycles describe recurring changes in economic activity, moving through periods of expansion, peak conditions, contraction, and recovery. They influence company earnings, employment, credit demand, government revenue, and investor risk appetite. Explore guides explaining each phase of the cycle, leading and lagging indicators, output gaps, soft landings, and the relationship between cycles and financial markets. Learn why no two cycles are identical and how policy decisions can amplify or moderate economic fluctuations.