>And 0.1% annual growth is still exponential... if you multiply something by 1.001 many times over, it will grow. The press won't be impressed, though.
Yes, right, the base of the exponent can be very small (close to one as in this case), and it is still technically an "exponential function"! But the popular term "exponential growth" has a somewhat different meaning.
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)