Yes, they make sense outside the context of temperature.
Step-by-step explanation:
If you are standing in a line, and mark your current position as 0 then if you take two steps ahead it can be counted as positive and if you take two steps back from your current position it can be counted as negative. The positive and negative can denote your forward and backward movement respectively.
If we denote the growth in companies revenue as positive and dip as negative then it would also make sense. A positive number would mean profit for the company while a negative sign would show loss.
