Administered price: A price set not by the forces of demand and supply, but by some authority like the Government or a regulatory authority.
Agenda 21: Programme of action adopted at the Earth Summit in 1992. It has 21 chapters dealing with all aspects of sustainable development, conservation, and resource management.
Appropriation Bill: A bill introduced in the Parliament together with the budget, seeking the approval of the House to permit expenditure from the Consolidated Fund of India.
Arbitrage: The practice of taking advantage of price differences in two markets.
Asset-stripping: Selling surplus land or machinery of an industrial undertakings to convert the idle or under-utilized asset into cash.
Balance or Payment (BOP): It is the summary record of a country’s economic transactions with the outside world, during a period, usually one year. It has two segments – current account and capital account. Current account consists of exports and imports (visible trade), and receipts and payments in respect and payments in respect of tourism, travel, remittance by non-residents etc. (invisible). Capital account consists of foreign direct investment and sale and purchase of financial assets.
Balance of Trade: The difference between visible imports and visible exports. This is one of the components of balance of payment on current account.
Bank rate: The official rate of which the RBI will rediscount the bills of commercial banks. It is used as a signal by the RBI to commercial banks on the RBI’s thinking of what of interest rates should be:
Bear: In a stock exchange a trader who expects the prices of shares to fall. Bear market is where there are several bear operators and consequently prices fall persistently.
Beggar-my-neighbor policy: A policy where a country seeks to benefit at the expense of another country. Competitive devaluation of currency is an illustration.
Bull: A trader who expects the price of