A recession is typically defined as a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales. A slowdown refers to a decrease in the rate of growth of GDP or economic activity, but not necessarily a contraction. A meltdown, while colloquially used for a sharp fall in stock prices, is not a standard economic term for this phenomenon in the same way recession and slowdown are.