Economics key terms A-G

Balanced budget

• When total public-sector spending equals total government income during the same period from taxes and charges for public services.

Bonds

• A bond is an interest-bearing security issued by governments, companies and some other organisations. Bonds are an alternative way for the issuer to raise capital.

Business cycle

• Boom and bust. The long-run pattern of economic growth and recession.

Buyer's market

• A market in which supply seems plentiful and prices seem low.

Capital markets

• Markets in securities such as bonds and shares.

Capitalism

• A free-market system built on private ownership, in particular, the idea that owners of capital have property rights that entitle them to earn a profit as a reward for putting their capital at risk in some form of economic activity.

Central Bank 

• A guardian of the monetary system.

Ceteris Parabus

• Other things being equal.

Closed economy 

• An economy that does not take part in International trade.

Command economy

• When a government controls all aspects of economic activity.

Commodity

• A comparatively homogeneous product that can typically be bought in bulk.

Competition 

• The more competition there is, the more likely are firms to be efficient and prices to be low.

Consumer surplus

• The difference between what a consumer would be willing to pay for a good or service and what that consumer actually has to pay.

Credit

• A loan extended or taken by, for example, delayed payment of an invoice.

Credit Crunch

• When banks suddenly stop lending, or bond market liquidity evaporates, usually because creditors have become extremely risk-averse.

Creditor

• A lender.

Deficit

• In the red- when more money goes out than comes in.

Deflation

• Falling prices.

Deposit insurance

• Protection for people's savings in case their bank goes bust.

Depreciation

• A fall in the value of an asset or a currency.

Deregulation

• The process of removing legal restrictions on the amount of competition, the sorts of business done, or the prices charged within a particular industry.

Derivatives

• Financial assets that derive their value from other assets.

Devaluation

• A sudden fall in the value of a currency against other currencies.

Developing countries

• The world's poor countries, also known as emerging…