18. National economies and international trade CHECK YOUR ENGLISH VOCABULARY FOR BANKING AND FINANCE

CHECK YOUR ENGLISH VOCABULARY FOR BANKING AND FINANCE

18. National economies and international trade

A. Match the terms with the definitions. 1 trade surplus a Money owed by a country to foreign creditors 2 trade deficit b The accounts setting out a country's transactions with the rest of the world 3 balance of trade c The value of a country's imports exceeds its exports 4 balance of payments d The accounts setting out a country's total imports and exports. 5 external debt e The value of a country's exports exceeds its imports 6 debt servicing f Expansion of the economy 7 devaluation g The value of all the goods and services produced by an economy over a period (e.g. one year). 8 growth h Contraction of the economy 9 recession i GDP plus other forms of income such as interest, profits and dividends received from abroad. 10 gross domestic product (GDP) j The national income divided by the population 11 gross national product (GNP) k The payment of interest on debts 12 national per capita income l Reduction in the value of a currency B. Look at these sentences about the economy of the United Kingdom. Do you think the answers are TRUE or FALSE? (If you don't know, guess.) 1 The UK is a market economy. TRUE / FALSE Most major industries are state-owned. TRUE / FALSE Many state-owned industries were privatised in the 1980s. TRUE / FALSE The pound was floated in 2006. TRUE / FALSE The UK owes several trillion pounds to the IMF (International Monetary Fund). TRUE / FALSE 2 3 4 5 6 The UK spends nearly a quarter of its GNP on servicing external debt. TRUE / FALSE The UK has never experienced hyperinflation. TRUE / FALSE The UK has never had a trade deficit. TRUE / FALSE In 2006 the UK economy shrank slightly. TRUE / FALSE From 1990 to 2005, the UK economy experienced double-digit growth. TRUE / FALSE 7 8 9 10 C. Write the words into the spaces in the sentences. “boom and bust” budget deficit budget surplus crops deregulation disposable income free trade globalisation industrial base infrastructure market forces natural resources private sector public sector quota Retail Price Index (RPI) social security subsidies trade barrier trading partners 1 European farmers receive large sums of EU money in the form of _______________. If government expenditure is higher than government income, the result is a _______________. If government income is higher than government expenditure, the result is a _______________. In a _______________ economy periods of growth are followed by periods of recession. People who work for state-owned organisations such as public hospitals and state schools work in the _______________. 2 3 4 5 6 People who work for privately-owned organisations work in the _______________. Payments by the government to people with little or no other income is called _______________. Buildings, roads, railway lines, telephone networks and power supplies are all part of a country's _______________. A limit on the amount of particular type of import is a _______________. Import tariffs and quotas are types of _______________. 7 8 9 10 11 The absence of trade barriers is known as _______________. Britain's most important _______________ are France, Germany and the USA. The world is one big market". This is one way of describing _______________. The world price of coffee is not fixed. It is largely controlled by _______________. When a government makes something easier and less bureaucratic, this is called _______________. 12 13 14 15 16 One of the main ways to measure inflation is the _______________ which is based on the prices of goods and services. The money people have after paying for food, housing and other necessities is called _______________. Manufacturing, mining and oil refining are parts of the UK's ______________. Oil, coal and water are _______________. Wheat, potatoes and apples are _______________. 17 18 19 20

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