Business English Economy
GDP – Gross Domestic Product is the total monetary value of goods and services produced within a country.
Fiscal is anything to do with financial matter (especially with taxes)
Quarter is three months (ex. January February March)
Currency is money used in a country or a region.
Budget is to make a plan on how to spend a certain amount of money.
Deficit means need more money than one has
Surplus means when government or company has more money than budget
Inflation is when prices of goods and services go up but wages stay the same
Deflation is when the prices go down and the value of currency goes up
In stagnation usually there’s hardly any movement, up or down. It means everythihng stays more or less the same
Credit (rating) is ability to borrow money (ex. Someone can pay a car by monthly payment)
Debt, owing money to someone
Recession means that the economy is in decline
Depression is a big decline of economy
Bubble, the prices of something growing quickly for a particular reason and then burst.
Boom => growing (up)
bust => shrinking (down)
Exercises
1. Recently, housing markets have experienced a major _______, with prices reaching higher than $1 million in many areas.
a. boom
b. bust
c. recession
d. deflation
2. Although every government tries to run its economy on a ______, most end up spending to a deficit instead.
a. boom
b. depression
c. stagnation
d. surplus
3. A CFO, or Chief Financial Officer, is responsible for a company’s ________ strength.
a. budget
b. fiscal
c. currency
d. bubble
4. After a slow start to the year, the economy finally showed signs of recovery in the third _______, growing by close to 1% from July to September.
a. fiscal
b. budget
c. quarter
d. bubble
5. A period of negative economic growth that lasts two consecutive quarters is technically called a _________.
a. boom
b. depression
c. recession
d. stagnation
6. Governments and businesses set a _______ for the following year in order to control their spending.
a. deficit
b. budget
c. currency
d. GDP
7. Analysts have predicted that the current housing _________ will soon burst, as prices have reached too high for most people to afford.
a. bubble
b. bust
c. depression
d. inflation
8. A _____ occurs when a government spends more than it makes in revenues over the course of a year.
a. quarter
b. deficit
c. surplus
d. budget
9. While _____ has raised prices on almost everything, salaries have remained stagnant, leading many people into debt.
a. recession
b. stagnation
c. inflation
d. deflation
10. Anything that you owe someone else is called _______.
a. bubble
b. fiscal
c. debt
d. currency
e. crap
key A D B C C B A B C C