So a central bank might temporarily reduce interest rates to help the economy out of a temporary slowdown.

As a result, statehouses are searching for new tax-collection formulas, and some tax experts are seeing changes that go beyond a temporary economic slowdown.

The semiconductor test equipment business was also off, reflecting a presumably temporary slowdown in capital spending by chip manufacturers, analysts said.

And assuming that we aren't, which is by far the more likely scenario, we're talking about a quite temporary slowdown.

"This is a temporary slowdown in what has been a very robust economic climate."

Others think that this weakening is a temporary slowdown.

Most important, there is absolutely no reason to use permanent tax changes to battle a temporary economic slowdown.

Indeed, the temporary slowdown in mergers and acquisitions that followed the stock market crash had little impact on the firms.

Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve chairman, predicts only "a soft patch," a temporary slowdown.

But British Petroleum said it expected its chemicals operations to benefit from market growth in 1996 after a temporary slowdown in demand.