Just eyeballing the all-time chart there, it looks like ~30 of the last 39 years had similar or lower levels. So the "even weaker" = "an increase in existing we

Just eyeballing the all-time chart there, it looks like ~30 of the last 39 years had similar or lower levels. So the "even weaker" = "an increase in existing weakening" reading is supported while "even weaker" = "an increase in existing weakness" is not. Presumably the former was the intention.