The phrase "discouraging developments" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to refer to events or trends that are discouraging or disheartening. For example, "The rising unemployment rate is a discouraging development for the economy."
Women who suffer from advanced, intractable breast cancer have been confronted with discouraging developments over the past year.
The case is a sham and, along with other discouraging developments, indicates that Egypt has not ended its troubling half-step forward, half-step back approach to human rights.
Then again, as the professor writes in his Two-Minute Case for Optimism, which has saved so many Chipotle customers from despair since appearing on its take-out bags, one should always put these discouraging developments in perspective.
The Food and Drug Administration is contemplating rule changes that would make it harder for antibiotics to win approval, possibly discouraging development.
But the law has mostly held, discouraging development along some 1.3 million acres of American coastline — a monumental triumph that continues to pay dividends.
But critics say the measures are an artificial and dangerous tinkering with normal market forces and could exacerbate problems in the long run by discouraging development of new sources of electricity.
And that may require us to analyze all regulations that discourage development.
Then as it was about to reach them, the state discouraged development.
"If you're dealing with areas that have high potential for restoration, we would discourage development there.
Host governments are wary of seeing aid diverted from locals to refugees, so they often discourage development.
"The Department of City Planning is looking to encourage contextual development of the neighborhood and discourage development that is out of character for Park Slope".
