meaning of "目{め}に見えるほど、〜"

Question

I wanted to say:

"As best can be predicted, economic conditions will continue to worsen"

I tried:

1. 見{み}える ほど、景気{けいき}が悪くなっているようです。
2. 分析{ぶんせき} できるほど、景気が悪くなっているようです。
3. 推測{すいそく} できるほど、景気が悪くなっているようです。

A native speaker offered this as the best translation:

"目に見えるほど、景気が悪くなっているようです。"

The "目に見えるほど" phrases seems very strange to me.

• "目に見せる" seems possible.
• "目で見えた" seems possible (but redundant).

I don't understand the sense of "目に見える".
Is this phrase really a metaphor?
What are some contexts in which "目に見える" can be used?

Answer 1

Does "as best can be predicted" mean something like "as far as one can predict" or "in the foreseeable future"? If so, I think your native speaker got it wrong. Try these instead:

• 予見【よけん】可能な範囲で、
• 予測可能な範囲で、
• 予測できる限り、

• Xできる範囲で、X可能な限り = as far as one can do X
• Xできるほど = to the point where one can do X, so that one can do X

So 目に見えるほど literally means "to the point where it is visible to (my) eyes".

And "ようです" means "It looks like ～", referring to something in the present. You have to use "～しそうです", "～するでしょう", or "～するだろう" if you want to describe something in the future.

My best translation would be:

予測可能な範囲で、景気は悪化しつづけるでしょう。

Answer 2

目に見える (lit. visible to the eye) is similar in meaning to just 見える, but tends to be used for "visibility" in general, whereas 見える tends to be used for specific cases of "somebody can see something".

目に見えるほど、景気が悪くなっているようです。It seems that economic conditions have gotten visibly worse. (worse to a visible extent)

is a perfect sentence, but isn't a very good translation of your English sentence.

As for context with 目に見える, did you try alc?

http://eow.alc.co.jp/search?q=%E7%9B%AE%E3%81%AB%E8%A6%8B%E3%81%88%E3%82%8B&ref=sa