| Business and Economic Terms-India |
| ACP |
African, Caribbean and Pacific Group (Lomé Convention and Cotonu Agreement). |
| Ad valorem |
Value added. An example of an ad valorem tax would be VAT. |
| AD, A-D |
Anti-dumping measures. |
| Advances |
Loans given by financial institutions and others. |
| AFTA |
ASEAN Free Trade Area. |
| Amortization |
Writing down the value of an asset in a company's books to reflect its loss of value through age and use. Called depreciation in the UK. Amortization is also an accounting term to pay off a loan in gradual increments. |
| AMS |
Aggregate measurement of support (agriculture). |
| APEC |
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation |
| Appreciation |
An increase in the value of an asset like land or stock. |
| Arbitrage |
Movements of funds to take advantage of differences in exchange or interest rates, and this quickly eliminates any such differences. |
| ASEAN |
Association of Southeast Asian Nations. |
| ATC |
Agreement on Textiles and Clothing. |
| Average costpricing |
Setting price equal to average cost. |
| Average propensity to consume |
The proportion of disposable income spent |
| Backward integration |
Occurs when a company joins with a firm that is involved at an earlier stage of the production chain. |
| Balance of payments |
Statement of a country's net financial transactions with other countries. Current account measures balance of imports and exports and payments and receipts for services such as shipping, banking and tourism. Capital account measures movements of capital (bank deposits, securities, shares, property). |
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Balance of Trade
|
The difference between the value of visible exports and visible imports |
| Barter |
The direct exchange of goods and services without the use of money. |
| Birth rate |
The number of live births per thousand of the population in a year. |
| Black economy |
Unrecorded wealth and production. |
| Black markets |
Created when buyers and sellers meet to negotiate the exchange of a prohibited or illegal good. More generally any unofficial market in which prices are inordinately high. |
| Bonds |
Certificate of debt issued to raise funds. It normally has a fixed rate of interest and is repayable at a fixed date. See also convertible bonds, mortgage-backed securities. |
| Break-even |
When a firm's short-run total revenue equals its short-run total cost |
| Bretton Woods system |
An arrangement of fixed exchange rates which operated between 1945 and 1971. |
| Bull market |
Period of rising share prices; an optimistic state of affairs; the opposite of a bear market. |
| Buyer's market |
The quantity of goods for sale exceeds the amount consumers are willing and able to buy at the current market price; characterized by low prices |
| Call option |
The right but not the obligation to buy a security at a specified price at a specified date in the future. |
| Call rates |
The interest rate on money loaned overnight. Also known as the overnight rate. Widely used measure of money market rates. |
| Capital gains |
The difference between the sale and purchase price of an asset |
| CBD |
Convention on Biological Diversity |
| CCC |
(former) Customs Co-operation Council (now WCO) |
| CER |
[Australia New Zealand] Closer Economic Relations [Trade Agreement] (also ANCERTA) |
| Ceteris paribus |
All other influencing factors are held constant. |
| Closed economy |
An economy which does not engage in international trade. |
| Collusion |
Agreements between firms to restrict competition |
| COMESA |
Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa |
| Complementary goods |
Two goods consumed at the same time, e.g. cars and petrol |
| Consumer surplus |
This occurs when people are able to buy a good for less than they would be willing to pay. They enjoy more utility than they had to pay for. |
| Consumer's price index |
Measure of the change in the cost of consumer goods and services. It is used as an indicator of a nation's inflation rate. |
| Corporation tax (Corporate Tax) |
A tax on a corporate entity’s profits. |
Cost Benifit Analysis
|
A method of assessing investment projects which takes into account social costs and benefits. |
| Cost of living |
The general level of prices in the economy, usually measured by the retail price index. |
| Cost plus pricing |
Setting prices by adding a profit margin to average cost. |
| Cost push inflation |
When a cost of production (e.g. wages) increases and firms put up prices to maintain profits. |
| Credit creation |
The ability of the banking sector to create money by giving advances. |
| Crowding out |
A decline in private sector spending resulting from a rise in public sector expenditure. |
| CTD |
Committee on Trade and Development |
| CTE |
Committee on Trade and Environment |
| Current account balance |
A record of a country's earnings from the sale of visible and invisible items minus its expenditure on visible and invisible items from abroad. |
| Current account deficit |
When a country spends more on visible and invisible items from abroad than it earns from the sale of visible and invisible items. |
| Current account |
Usually taken to mean the current account of the balance of payments. |
| CVD |
Countervailing duty (subsidies) |