A single one-off move may be disruptive to overall business activities but at least the process is carried out over a short time.

But others contend that the report is significant because manufacturing is a leading indicator of overall business activity.

He said he was worried about reduced consumer spending that could weaken overall business activity.

Equipped with all modern facilities, the trade centre will help attain the country's overall business activities, including imports-exports, at the level of international standard.

The entire New York metropolitan region is suffering from severe unemployment and weak overall business activity, to say the least.

Keynesians assumed that a cut in interest rates would stimulate demand for a wide variety of products, increasing overall business activity.

Importing could be a function within your overall business activity, or it could be a particular characteristic of your business offering.

The most widespread view among economists is that the higher profits made possible by cost-cutting will eventually lead to an increase in overall business activity and a resumption of hiring.

Some of the information will be anecdotal, he said, but "it will be the most comprehensive source of overall business activity available, and the market's reaction may well be stronger than normal."

At the same time, however, it appeared odd to some economists that overall business activity outside farms could have climbed as much as 1 percent, the revised and assertedly correct figure, when manufacturing was so weak.