What is the Business Cycle in economics? The business cycle can be described as successive periods of rising and falling economic activities. It can also be called the economic cycle or the trade cycle. A business cycle is measured by the upward and downward movement of the gross domestic product (GDP) and fluctuates constantly. The fluctuations are sometimes bigger than others and vary in length. Business Cycle with trendline The changes in the business cycle is repetitious but not periodic like the phases of the moon. What this means is that after a period where the business cycle moves down it will always be followed by a period that makes the cycle move up. But, the periods at which the cycle moves up or down always differ. A business cycle's length is measured by looking at the distance between a peak and a peak, and a trough and a trough. When the next peaks/troughs are higher than the ones before it, an upward trend can be seen. The same is applied for when th...