imp terms

FORTAN:(Formula Translator) A high level programming language used mainly to solve scientific and engineering problems

G-77: The Group of 77 (G-77) was established in 1964 by seventy-seven developing countries signatories of the "Joint Declaration of the Seventy-Seven Countries" under the auspices of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva. As the largest Third World coalition in the United Nations, the Group of 77 provides the means for the developing world to articulate and promote its collective economic interests and enhance its joint negotiating capacity on all major international economic issues in the United Nations system. They also strive to promote economic and technical cooperation among developing countries. Although the membership of the G-77 has increased to 135 countries, the original name was retained because of its historic significance.

A forward exchange rate is the exchange rate in contract for receipt of and payment for foreign currency at a specified date usually for 30 days, 90 days or 180 days in the future, at a stipulated current or "spot" price.

ANDEAN COMMUNITY: The Andean Community (CAN) is a subregional organization endowed with an international legal status, which is made up of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. The main objectives of the Andean Community are to promote the balanced and harmonious development of the member countries under equitable conditions, to boost their growth through integration and economic and social cooperation and to enhance participation in the regional integration process with a view to the progressive formation of a Latin American common market. The Andean Community started operating on August 1, 1997 with a General Secretariat, whose headquarters are in Lima (Peru), as its executive body.

GAME THEORY: An analysis that illustrates how choices between two plays affect the outcome of a "game." Game theory is commonly used in economics to illustrate interdependent decision-making among oligopoly firms. It illustrates that one firm makes a decision based on the decision expected from the other firm. One key conclusion from the game theory analysis is that firms often make decisions that are "second best" or the "lesser of two evils." The classic example of such a decision is the prisoners' dilemma, in which two prisoners both confess to a crime to avoid harsher punishment when not confessing would avoid any punishment.

Environmental accounting refers to:

- national accounting: physical and monetary accounts of environmental assets and the costs of their depletion and degradation;

- corporate accounting: the term usually refers to environmental auditing, but may also include the costing of environmental impacts caused by the corporation.

A green ban is a ban imposed on construction in the inner part of a city so as to protect the urban natural environment

A green belt is a zone near a city that is restricted as regards any further extension of urban area. It serves as a buffer separating sources of pollution from the city population

Green GDP is a popular term for environmentally adjusted gross domestic product.

The green revolution is the increase in crop yields based on cultivation of high-response varieties of wheat, rice, maize and millet, and intensive use of fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation and machinery

Ground-level ozone is ozone present as a secondary pollutant in the lower atmosphere, where its formation can be enhanced by other pollutants. It is highly toxic at levels above 0.1 parts per million (p.p.m.).

Incineration is the controlled burning of solid, liquid or gaseous waste materials at high temperatures.

JPEG:Joint Photgraphic Experts Group (a standardised image compression technique

JAVA:A programming language that allows the creation of software packages that can run on multiple platforms (i.e. operating systems). Java programs, called aplets, can be sent or retrieved through the Internet to be executed on a remote computer

KNOWBOT:Intelligent agent gathering information on the Internet; more specific than search engines

changes in the LIBOR rate. Also, interest rate swap rates are quoted in reference to LIBOR; that is, the quoted rate is the fixed-rate side of the swap because the floating-rate side is LIBOR.

The London interbank offered rate for deposits, such as the six-month dollar LIBOR. LIBOR is a reference rate for the international banking markets and is commonly the basis on which lending margins are fixed. Thus, an original loan agreement or a rescheduling agreement may set the interest rate to the borrower at six-month dollar LIBOR plus 1.5 percent, with semiannual adjustments for changes in the LIBOR rate. Also, interest rate swap rates are quoted in reference to LIBOR; that is, the quoted rate is the fixed-rate side of the swap because the floating-rate side is LIBOR.

HYSTERESIS: The notion that the natural rate of unemployment is affected by historical events, especially the onset of a business-cycle contraction. Hysteresis results because unemployed resources are permanently changed, through loss of job skills or seniority, making them less employable when the contraction is over. The labor market itself might be permanently change. The result is a permanent increase in structural and frictional unemployment and a higher natural unemployment rate. Alternatively, a prolonged business-cycle expansion can generate long-term changes that cause a permanent decrease in the natural unemployment rate.

HYPERINFLATION: Exceptionally high inflation rates. While there are no hard and fast guidelines, an annual inflation rate of 20 percent or more is likely to get you the hyperinflation title. Some countries in the past have been quite good at creating hyperinflation. An annual inflation rate of 1,000 percent has not been uncommon. On occasion, the trillion percent inflation rate mark has been achieved. (That is, something with a one dollar price tag in early January would have a one trillion dollar price in late December. We're talking serious hyperinflation.)

Magnet Ink Character Recognition(MICR):The technique used in banking to encode account numbers and check values so they can be automatically debited from accounts

MODULATION:A partial transfer of support from the first (support to agriculture) to the second pillar (support to other rural activities) of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). With the latest reform of the CAP, modulation was made compulsory, resulting in a gradual reduction of payments directly to farmers with the aim of boosting rural development.

MONEY LAUNDERING:The attempt to conceal or disguise the ownership or source of the proceeds of criminal activity and to integrate them into the legitimate financial systems in such a way that they cannot be distinguished from assets acquired by legitimate means. Typically this involves the conversion of cash-based proceeds into account-based forms of money.

MONICA is a project established by the WHO to provide a cross-sectional and longitudinal comparison of cardiovascular disease (coronary heart disease event registration is obligatory, stroke optional), and to relate these to risk factor changes in the population over a ten year period.

A Pigouvian tax is a tax levied on an agent causing an environmental externality (environmental damage) as an incentive to avert or mitigate such damage.

PIXEL:Acronym for "picture element"; the unit of storage and display in raster mode

POETRY: Processing of Electronic Translation Request

Portfolio investment is the category of international investment that covers investment in equity and debt securities, excluding any such instruments that are classified as direct investment or reserve assets

Poverty Reduction And Growth Facility:An IMF facility known until November 1999 as the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF). The PRGF is available to those countries that are facing protracted balance of payments problems and are eligible to borrow on concessional terms under the International Development Association (IDA

Purchasing power parities (PPPs) are the rates of currency conversion that equalise the purchasing power of different currencies by eliminating the differences in price levels between countries. In their simplest form, PPPs are simply price relatives which show the ratio of the prices in national currencies of the same good or service in different countries

PRODCOMThe EU-wide harmonised classification of products produced by the industrial sector (directly linked to the external trade commodity classification) specified in Council Regulation No. 3294/91.

PROCAMPO is a programme of direct support to farmers in Mexico. It provides for direct payments per hectare on a historical basis

INFLATIONARY GAP: The difference between the equilibrium real production achieved in the short-run aggregate market and full-employment real production the occurs when short-run equilibrium real production is more than full-employment real production. An inflationary gap, also termed an expansionary gap, is associated with a business-cycle expansion, especially the latter stages of an expansion. This is one of two alternative output gaps that can occur when short-run production differs from full employment. The other is a recessionary gap.

Quantitative Restrictions :Specific limits on the quantity or value of goods that can be imported (or exported) during a specific time period.

INSIDER TRADING: The buying and selling of corporate stock or other financial instruments based on knowledge that is not widely available to the general public. Insider trading is most often undertaken by corporate executives or directors using information that they have acquired by working "inside" the company. Insider trading is illegal because it gives an unfair advantage to those on the inside. The president of a pharmaceutical company might be inclined to sell stock in the company using advanced information that the government is about to decline the patent application for a new drug.

Refinancing refers to the extension of a new loan to enable the repayment of all or part of the amounts outstanding on earlier borrowing, possibly including amounts not yet due.

Re-exports are foreign goods exported in the same state as previously imported, from the free circulation area, premises for inward processing or industrial free zones, directly to the rest of the world and from premises for customs warehousing or commercial free zones, to the rest of the world.

A Ringelmann Chart is the series of shaded illustrations used to measure the opacity of air pollution emissions. The chart shades range from light grey to black and serve in the setting and enforcing of emission standards.

Reverse investment: refers to the acquisition by a direct investment enterprise of a financial claim on its direct investor.

Because direct investment is recorded on a directional basis, capital invested by the direct investment enterprise in its direct investor (reverse investment) is regarded as an offset to capital invested in the direct investment enterprises by a direct investor and its related enterprises, except in instances when the equity participations are at least 10 percent in both directions

Revolving credit refers to credit with a clause for automatic renewal (under certain conditions

Risk-weighted assets refer to a concept developed by the BCBS for the capital adequacy ratio. Assets are weighted by factors representing their riskiness and potential for default

A real-time gross settlement system (RTGS) is a settlement system in which processing and settlement take place on an order-by-order basis (without netting) in real time (continuously

Rules of origin:Laws, regulations and administrative procedures which determine a product's country of origin. A decision by a customs authority on origin can determine whether a shipment falls within a quota limitation, qualifies for a tariff preference or is affected by an anti-dumping duty. These rules can vary from country to country.

INSOLVENCY: The condition of a business when liabilities (excluding ownership equity) are greater than Assets. In other words, a business can't pay it's debts. This is a first step on the road to bankruptcy, but it doesn't guarantee that legal bankruptcy proceedings will be initiated

SACU:Southern African Customs Union comprising Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland

SDMX REGISTRY:An application which stores metadata for querying, and which can be used by any other application in the network with sufficient access privileges.