BUSINESS Any activity or organization that produces or exchanges
goods or services for a profit.
BARTER Trading (buying and selling) a good or
service directly for another good or service - without using money or credit.
BALANCE
SHEET An itemized statement listing the total
assets and total liabilities of a given business to portray its net worth at a
given moment in time.
BORROW To receive and use something
belonging to somebody else, with the intention of returning or repaying it --often
with interest (for a period of time) for borrowed money.
BORROWER
An individual who has borrowed/ borrowing
money.
BRAND
A trade name used to recognize a product
produced by a particular firm, distinguishing it from similar products produced
by competitors.
BLUE
CHIP STOCKS Shares
of large, nationally well-known companies that have been profitable for a long
time and are well-known and trusted.
BOND
A certificate of indebtedness issued by a government or a publicly held
corporation, promising to repay borrowed money to the lender at a fixed rate of
interest and at a specified time.
BANK
A financial institution that provides various products and services to
its customers, including savings accounts, loans and currency exchange.
BANKING
INDUSTRY The industry involved with conducting
financial transactions. Also, conducting business with a bank, e.g.,
maintaining a savings account or obtaining a loan, etc.
BANK
ACCOUNT An arrangement by which a bank holds funds
on behalf of a depositor.
BANK
RESERVES The percentage of a bank's deposits that it
keeps on hand, i.e., does not lend out.
BANK
SERVICE CHARGES Fees paid by bank customers for financial
services, for example, fees for using the ATMs of other banks and fees for
using bank-issued credit cards, etc.
BANK
STATEMENT A
monthly summary providing the status of a depositor's financial accounts (current
and/or savings account).
BARRIERS
TO ENTRY Factors that restrict entry into an
industry and give cost advantages to existing firms. Examples economies of large size of existing firms, control over an
essential resource or information (exit costs, for
example, norm to hire workers on long-term contracts), sunk cost such as advertisements and
legal rights such as patents and licenses.
BALANCE
OF PAYMENTS It is a systematic record of all transactions
(in goods, services, physical and financial assets) between individuals, firms
and governments of one country with those in all other countries in a given
year, expressed in monetary terms.
BALANCE
OF PAYMENTS DEFICIT An imbalance in a nation's balance of
payments, where more currency is flowing out (for import) of the country than
is flowing in (from export).
BALANCE
OF PAYMENTS SURPLUS An imbalance in a nation's balance of
payments in which more currency is flowing into (from export) the country than
is flowing out (for import).
BALANCE
OF TRADE The part of a nation's balance of payments
accounts that deals only with its imports and exports of goods and services. The balance of trade is divided into the
balance on goods (visible) and the balance on services (invisible).
BARRIERS
TO TRADE Restrictions
on trade such as tariffs, quotas and regulations so as to reduce the trade.
BUDGET
A spending-and-savings plan,
based on estimated income and expenses for an individual or an organization, or
a country covering a specific time period.
BALANCED
BUDGET A financial plan in which income is equal to
expenses.
BUDGET
DEFICIT It is
a situation when budget expenses are greater than income in a given year.
BUDGET
SURPLUS It is
a situation when budget income is greater than budget expenses in a given year.
BENEFIT Monetary
or non-monetary gain received because of an action taken or a decision made.
BUSINESS
CYCLE Variations in the overall rate of national
economic activity with alternating periods of growth and reduction; these vary
in duration and degrees of severity; usually measured by real gross domestic
product (GDP).
BASKET OF GOODS Large number of commonly
used goods would be taken for the construction of index number. Basket of goods
shows the true representative of household purchases.
BASE YEAR The year from which the
index numbers begins. In the base year the index will always be 100 so that we
can compare it with the current year.