it (be predicted) in a popular news blog (Use the phrase with 2 past tenses)

By 2005, things ... (improve): government measures ... (cut) the budget deficit to 6% of GDP and the inflation rate ... (go down) to 1.6%.

In October 2006, Voltra ... (be) in trouble.

two major competitors (announce) a merger (Use the phrase with 2 past tenses)

(create) one of the biggest financial groups in Europe (Use the phrase with 2 past tenses)

The year before, the price of raw materials ... (rise) steadily, the company's sales ... (fall) and its shares ... (already/drop) in value by 30%.

In 2002, the country's economy ... (look) very unstable.

By the 1980s, scientists ... (become) aware of the commercial potential of their work, and many ... (leave) the universities to set up their own companies.

the company's shares (fall) before the announcement (Use the phrase with 2 past tenses)

the financial sector (be unstable) in recent weeks (Use the phrase with 2 past tenses)

The biotechnology industry ... (grow) out of university labs in the 1980s.

the directors (negotiate) the terms of the agreement (Use the phrase with 2 past tenses)

The first successful gene transfer ... (take place) in the early 1970s, and by the end of the decade some pharmaceutical companies ... (start) mass-producing some proteins.