Recession has curbed demand for its minerals and forest products.
The shift in developed countries' output from metal-bashing industries to services has curbed demand, as have technological advances that have provided substitutes, such as fibre optics instead of copper wire.
Meanwhile, in a kind of Catch-22, the lack of a fully functioning system has curbed demand by transplant doctors for umbilical cord blood, leaving the blood banks without the money to collect and store significantly more units.
Even with unprecedented amounts of monetary and fiscal stimulus, the recovery that began in June 2009 has remained anemic, because consumers, the major driver of private demand, have curbed their spending, increased their saving and started to deleverage and reduce their debt — and they still have a long way to go.
And although rich countries have curbed their energy-guzzling a little, demand continues to surge in emerging markets.This has left the oil market very vulnerable to temporary supply disruptions, such as the war in Libya.
With natural gas prices way down from their peak late in 2000, largely because of a slowing United States economy that has curbed American demand for the fuel, the bonanza that once looked so promising here has yet to materialize.
The global economic slump that has curbed energy demand and pushed oil prices down in recent months may provide only a short-lived respite for consumers, according to the world's top energy forecaster.
Water bills have risen, but even that has not curbed demand sufficiently.
The slowing global economy has certainly curbed demand, and a coordinated effort by industrialized countries to release strategic oil reserves on the market bolstered supplies.
The slowing global economy has led to declining demand for oil in Europe and the United States and has curbed consumption growth in China and other developing countries.
