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Hoy, la economía es cada vez menos estable.

Hoy, la economía es cada vez menos estable.
Today, the economy is less and less stable.
From Lesson 193:Progressive comparison (cada vez más)·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about Hoy, la economía es cada vez menos estable.

How exactly does cada vez menos translate to "less and less"?
Cada vez literally translates to "each time". When you combine it with menos (less), you get "each time less". In English, we naturally express this ongoing, progressive change as "less and less" or "increasingly less".
Since the stability is changing, why do we use es instead of está?
This is a tricky one! Even though the amount of stability is decreasing, being estable is considered a defining, structural characteristic of an economy, which generally requires ser (es). You use cada vez menos to show that this characteristic is fading, but the base verb stays ser.
Does estable need to change to match the feminine noun economía?
No, because adjectives ending in -e like estable are gender-neutral. It stays exactly the same whether it describes a feminine noun like la economía or a masculine noun like el mercado (the market).
Could I put cada vez menos at the very end of the sentence?
No, you must keep cada vez menos directly before the adjective it is modifying. Just like in English you wouldn't say "the economy is stable less and less", in Spanish you must keep the phrase together as cada vez menos estable.

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