The economy

• Business cycleThe recurring pattern of expansion, peak, contraction and recovery in an economy.
• Carry tradeBorrowing in a low-interest currency to invest in a higher-yielding one, keeping the difference.
• Central bankThe institution that sets a country’s benchmark interest rate and manages its money supply.
• Consumer price indexThe main official measure of inflation, tracking the price of a fixed basket of goods and services.
• Core inflationInflation excluding food and energy prices, used to see the underlying trend.
• Economic data releaseScheduled official statistics that move markets when they differ from expectations.
• Exchange rateThe price of one currency in terms of another.
• FOMCThe committee within the US Federal Reserve that sets American interest-rate policy.
• Fiscal policyGovernment decisions on taxation and spending, and their effect on the economy.
• Gross domestic productThe total value of goods and services an economy produces in a period.
• Interest rateThe cost of borrowing money, set at the short end by the central bank.
• Leading indicatorA statistic that tends to change before the wider economy does.
• Quantitative easingA central bank buying bonds with newly created money to lower long-term rates.
• RecessionA significant, broad-based decline in economic activity lasting more than a few months.
• SectorA grouping of companies doing broadly similar business, used to organise markets.
• StagflationHigh inflation combined with weak growth and rising unemployment.
• Unemployment rateThe share of people who want work and cannot find it, among those actively looking.

Educational reference only. Nothing here is investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell anything, and tax treatment depends on your own circumstances and the country you are in.