E
ENameLearner

Macro

Business cycles

The business cycle moves through an upswing, a peak, a downswing and a trough as overall activity rises and falls.

CAPS

Grade 10 · Economics · Macro

Economics wants the concept, then the diagram or the data, then the consequence.

  • The papers

    Paper 1 is macroeconomics and economic pursuits. Paper 2 is microeconomics and contemporary economic issues. Each paper is 150 marks.

  • How to write it

    Define the term as CAPS uses it. If a graph is asked for, label both axes, the curves, and the equilibrium or the shift. Then say what happens to price, quantity, growth, inflation or unemployment. A curve with no labels does not explain.

  • How a marker reads it

    A common mix-up is calling any quiet month a trough, when a trough is the low point of the whole economy's cycle, not one slow Saturday.

Essays are marked on the introduction, a body that applies the theory, and a conclusion that answers the question. A list of definitions is not an argument.

Worked theory

Worked theory. A used-car lot in Johannesburg is busy through 2008, with buyers taking cars off the front row most weekends, which fits an upswing near a peak. Through 2009 the same lot is quiet, cars sit for weeks, and the owner drops one car from R40 000 to R32 000 to find a buyer. That quiet stretch is the downswing heading toward a trough. The 2008-09 downturn was a real fall in activity. The lot illustrates the phases, and it is not a GDP figure.

More worked examples

  • Cape Town bookings

    A bed and breakfast in Cape Town has full weekends for two years, then bookings thin month after month and the owner stops hiring a weekend cleaner. The full years illustrate an upswing moving toward a peak. The long thinning is a downswing. The trough is the point at which bookings stop falling, not the first quiet weekend. A later return of weekend guests would be the next upswing.

  • East London cement

    During the 2020 lockdown many building jobs stopped, and a hardware store in East London watched contractors disappear. That sudden quiet matches a downswing, and for many firms those months felt like a trough. When building picks up and the same contractors return for cement, the store is in a new upswing. One store does not prove the national phase. Its direction is still the language of the cycle.

In ordinary words

In an upswing, spending, production and jobs grow. The peak is the high point, where activity is stretched and the rise stops. The downswing is the fall: orders drop, shops quieten, and some people lose hours or jobs. The trough is the low point before a recovery begins, and these phases describe the economy's general direction, not one shop's bad Saturday.

In South Africa

A Johannesburg used-car lot that had weekend crowds in 2008 is quiet for long stretches in 2009.

Part 1 / 4

What it is

The business cycle moves through an upswing, a peak, a downswing and a trough as overall activity rises and falls.

More worked examples

Board walkthroughs on this topic. Open one, copy the working, then try the next.

Example 1 / 20

Real GDP grows 3% one year, 1% the next, then −0,5% and −1% in the next two quarters. Identify the phases.

How we got there

Read this like a teacher at the board. We go slowly, name every number, and say why we take each step.

Explain in another language · 11

1. What is the question asking?

Read the question twice. Circle the unknown. Underline every number and unit. The paper is asking: Real GDP grows 3% one year, 1% the next, then −0,5% and −1% in the next two quarters. Identify the phases.

Before any working — hunt first

Given

Numbers and units already in the sentence: 3% · 1% · 0,5% · 1%. Copy each one into a column. A name without a number is not given.

Missing

After you copy the given, the letter that still has no number is missing. The paper is pointing at: Identify the phases. Circle that word — that is the missing variable.

Find

We are required to find: Identify the phases. Write that as a symbol on the left, with a question mark, before you touch a formula.

Calculate

What we need to calculate: Two consecutive negative quarters = recession. Then substitute the given, one line at a time, to get Identify the phases.

In other words — as if you have never seen this before

If you have never seen this before: Two consecutive negative quarters = recession. We will name a method in words, write the formula with no numbers, then substitute one line at a time.

2. What do we already know?

GDP growth data.

3. Which method — and why this one?

Two consecutive negative quarters = recession.

4. Step-by-step working

  1. 01 / 08

    Step A — Read the question twice

    Slow down. Circle the word that names the unknown. Underline every number and its unit. Do not grab a formula yet — first decide what the paper is actually asking.

    Why this step: If you can say the method in a sentence, you will pick the right formula. First-timers skip this and grab the first equation they remember.

  2. 02 / 08

    Step A2 — Hunt: Given, Missing, Find, Calculate

    Given: Numbers and units already in the sentence: 3% · 1% · 0,5% · 1%. Copy each one into a column. A name without a number is not given. Missing: After you copy the given, the letter that still has no number is missing. The paper is pointing at: Identify the phases. Circle that word — that is the missing variable. Find: We are required to find: Identify the phases. Write that as a symbol on the left, with a question mark, before you touch a formula. Calculate: What we need to calculate: Two consecutive negative quarters = recession. Then substitute the given, one line at a time, to get Identify the phases.

    Why this step: Do not name the letters yet. First hunt: what already has a number (Given), what has no number (Missing), the word the paper wants (Find), and which formula still contains the missing letter (Calculate).

  3. 03 / 08

    Step B — Write the given in a column

    GDP growth data.

    Why this step: A column with units stops you mixing cm with m, or minutes with seconds. Markers can also see you started correctly.

  4. 04 / 08

    Step C — Name the method in words

    Two consecutive negative quarters = recession.

    Why this step: If you can say the method in a sentence, you will pick the right formula. First-timers skip this and grab the first equation they remember.

  5. 05 / 08

    Identify the given

    3% → 1%: slowing (downswing towards a peakcontraction). Two negative quarters: recession.

    Why this step: We only do one job per line so a marker can follow the marks — and so you can find a slip without starting over.

  6. 06 / 08

    Step G — Sense-check the size

    Ask: is this the kind of number a Grade 10–12 paper would want? A speed of 3 000 ms for a learner walking, or a probability bigger than 1, means a unit or algebra slip. Estimate first: round the numbers and do the sum in your head.

    Why this step: Markers write ‘unrealistic’ in the margin when the method is right but the size is wild. A 10-second head check often finds a missing 10² or a unit that never changed.

  7. 07 / 08

    Step F — Box the answer with its unit

    Economy moved from expansion to recession.

    Why this step: A number without a unit is half a mark on a Physics paper, and a marker can miss a Maths answer that is buried in working.

  8. 08 / 08

    Step H — What the marker is looking for

    On an NSC memo you usually earn: (1) a method mark for naming the right formula or idea in words, (2) an accuracy mark for substituting the given numbers with units, (3) an accuracy mark for the boxed answer with its unit. Write those three lines even if you are unsure of the arithmetic — blank pages score zero.

    Why this step: First-timers chase the final number and leave the method blank. The memo still pays out for the idea and the substitution even when the last line is wrong.

5. The answer

Economy moved from expansion to recession.

Copy onto your answer sheet — in this order

Answer: Economy moved from expansion to recession.

6. Check it like a marker

Recovery follows the trough.

7. A trap first-timers fall into

First-timers often grab the first formula they remember, mix units (cm with m, minutes with seconds), or drop a minus sign. Write the formula in words first: “this equals that, because…”

Share on WhatsApp

Next lesson →

Dynamics of markets

Economics

Take topic quiz

Ntsako · fx-991ZA PLUS. Tap to calculate.