The size of the economy is measured in terms of the total value of goods and services produced in a country, also known as its gross domestic product, or GDP.
Generally, the duration of a recession is the full period of the business cycle that economic activity is in decline.
There is no universally accepted way to measure a 'real' recession. Some suggest a full-year economic contraction or two consecutive quarters of the economy shrinking compared to the same period in the previous year.
Singapore's last 'full-scale' recession was in 2001, when the economy shrank 2.4 per cent during the year after the bursting of the dot.com bubble.