A recession is defined in macroeconomics as a decline in a country's real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for two or more successive quarters of a year (equivalently,two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth).A recession may involve simultaneous declines in coincident measures of overall economic activity such as employment,investment,and corporate profits.Recessions may be associated with falling prices (deflation),or,alternatively,sharply rising prices (inflation) in a process known as stagflation.A severe or long recession is referred to as an economic depression.