财经类英语文章

1. China's economy, one of the fastest- growing economies in the world and

the biggest

contributor

to

global

growth, grew

9.9

percent

year- on-year

in

the first three quarters of this year, according to official figures released on

Monday, showing a trend of a slowdown amid the current global financial

crisis.

In

the

third

quarter,

the

gross

domestic

product

(GDP)

growth

rate

slowed down to 9 percent, the lowest in five years, from 10.6 percent in the

first quarter, 10.1 percent for the second quarter and 10.4 percent in the first

half of 2008. China's economic growth has been on a steady decline since

peaking

in

the

second

quarter

of

2007.

The

slowing

world

economy

pummeled

by

the

global

financial

crisis

and

weaker

demand

for

Chinese

exports on international markets heavily weighted on the Chinese economy,

according to Li Xiaochao, spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics.

Another

widely

watched

indicator,

the

consumer

price

index

(CPI)

--

an

important

measure

of

inflation

--

rose

4.6

percent

in

September,

over

the

same

period

last

year.

The

figure,

coupled

with

7.1

percent

in

June,

6.3

percent

in

July,

4.9

percent

in

August

and

a

nearly

12-year-high

of

8.7

percent in February, shows the CPI in a downward spiral. Analysts mainly

attribute

the

decline

in

the

CPI

to

ample

grain

supply

and

lower- thanexpected income growth of Chinese residents, as the housing and

stock

markets

take

heavy

toll,

which

dented

residents'

desire

to

consume.

Chinese

stocks

have

shed

nearly

70

percent

of

their

value

from

the

last

year's

peak

at

6,124

points

due

to

weak

investor

confidence.

The

stock

market

rose

more

than

two

percent

on

Monday

amid

expectation

the

government

would

unveil

more

measures

to

stimulate

economy.

The

benchmark

Shanghai

Composite

Index

gained

43.36

points

to

close

at

1,974.01

points.

Exports,

one

of

the

three

major

drivers

of

the

Chinese

economy

along

with

investment

and

consumption,

are

taking

hit

from

the

global financial turmoil and economic slowdown. In the first three quarters

exports grew 22.3 percent, 4.8 percent points lower than the same period last

year. Fixed assets investment totaled 11.6246 trillion yuan ($$1.66 trillion) in

the

first

three

quarters

of

2008, up

27.0

percent

over

the

same

period

last

year,

according

to

the

bureau.

The

growth

rate

was

0.7

percentage

points

higher than the first half of this year, or 1.3 percentage points higher than the

year-earlier level. Another key economic indicator, retail sales, increased by

22 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters and climbed 23.2 percent

in

September

alone.

Analysts

say

China

would

have

to

further

stimulate

domestic consumption in order to push the economy forward amid an export

slump.

still

has

huge

potential

and

leeway

to

expand

domestic

consumption,

Li

said.

The

combination

of

an

economic

slowdown

and

easing

inflation

may

give

rise

to

louder

calls

for

loosening

the

monetary

policy

and

adopting

a

more

proactive

fiscal

policy.

Analysts

expect

more

monetary easing, building on two cuts in interest rates and banks' required

reserves

since

mid-September.

The

State

Council

said

on

Sunday

China's

economy can weather the effects of the global financial turmoil, but growth

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will decline as business profits and public revenues slow. In a statement at

the end of an executive meeting presided by Premier Wen Jiabao, it said the

global turmoil and economic instability will have a

country.

It

said

China's

economic

growth

will

slow

along

with

corporate

profits

and

public

revenues,

and

as

capital

markets

continue

to

fluctuate.

have not changed the basic growth situation of our country's economy,

the

statement

posted

on

a

government

website.

country's

economic

growth has the ability and vigor to resist risks.

and

cautious

macroeconomic

policies

to

maintain

stable

growth,

the

statement

said.

The

State

Council

said

that

in

the

fourth

quarter,

China

should

focus

on

developing

the

rural

economy,

while

striving

to

control

inflation. Global Financial Crisis

：

全球金融危机

international

market

国际市场

gross

domestic

product

国

内生产总值

consumer price index

消费者物价指数

housing and stock markets

房地产和证劵市场

investor confidence

投资者信心

stimulate economy

刺激经济

easing inflation

缓解通货膨胀

investment and consumption maintain stable growth

投资和消费

保持稳定增长

2. Macroeconomics is a sub-field of economics that examines the behavior

of the economy as a whole, once all of the individual economic decisions of

companies

and

industries

have

been

summed.

Economy-wide

phenomena

considered by macroeconomics include Gross Domestic Product and how it

is

affected

by

changes

in

unemployment, national

income,

rate of

growth,

and price levels. In contrast, microeconomics is the study of the economic

behaviour

and

decision-making

of

individual

consumers,

firms,

and

industries.

Macroeconomics

can

be

used

to

analyze

how

to

influence

government

policy

goals

such

as

economic

growth,

price

stability,

full

employment

and

the

attainment

of

a

sustainable

balance

of

payments.

Macroeconomics

is

sometimes

used

to

refer

to

a

general

approach

to

economic

reasoning,

which

includes

long

term

strategies

and

rational

expectations in aggregate behavior. Until the 1930s most economic analysis

did not separate out individual economics behavior from aggregate behavior.

With the Great Depression of the 1930s, suffered throughout the developed

world

at

the time,

and

the

development

of

the concept of

national

income

and

product

statistics,

the

field

of

macroeconomics

began

to

expand.

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Particularly

influential

were

the

ideas

of

John

Maynard

Keynes,

who

formulated theories to try to explain the Great Depression. Before that time,

comprehensive

national

accounts,

as

we

know

them

today,

did

not

exist .

One

of

the

challenges

of

economics

has

been

a

struggle

to

reconcile

macroeconomic

and

microeconomic

models.

Starting

in

the

1950s,

macroeconomists

developed

micro-based

models

of

macroeconomic

behavior. Dutch economist Jan Tinbergen developed the first comprehensive

national macroeconomic model, which he first built for the Netherlands and

later applied to the United States and the United Kingdom after World War

II.

The

first

global

macroeconomic

model,

Wharton

Econometric

Forecasting Associates LINK project, was initiated by Lawrence Klein and

was mentioned in his citation for the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in

1980.

Macroeconomics

宏观经济学

Price

stability

价格稳定

balance

of

payments

国际收支平衡表

individual economics behavior

个体经济行为

product statistics

产品统计

individual economic decisions

个体经济决策

full

employment

充分就业

rational

expectations

理性预期

long

term

strategies

长期战略

microeconomic models

微观经济模型

annual review of American company board practices by Korn/Ferry, a

firm

of

3.

headhunters,

is

a

useful

indicator

of

the

health

of

corporate

governance.

This

year’s

revie

w,

published

on

November

12th,

shows

that

the

Sarbanes-Oxley

act,

passed

in

2002

to

try

to

prevent

a

repeat

of

corporate collapses such as Enron’s and WorldCom’s, has had an impact on

the

boardroom--albeit

at

an

average

implementation

cost

that

Korn/Ferry

estimates at $$5.1m per firm.

Two

years

ago,

only

41%

of

American

firms

said

they

regularly

held

meetings

of

directors

without

their

chief

executive

present;

this

year

the

figure was 93%. But some things have been surprisingly unaffected by the

backlash against corporate scandals. For example, despite a growing feeling

that

former

chief

executives

should

not

sit

on

their

company’s

board,

the

percentage

of

American

firms

where

they

do

has

actually

edged

up,

from

23% in 2003 to 25% in 2004. Also, disappointingly few firms have split the

jobs of chairman and chief executive. Another survey of American boards

published this week, by A.T. Kearney, a firm of consultants, found that in

2002

14% of

the

boards

of

S&P

500

firms

had

separated

the roles,

and

a

further 16% said they planned to do so. But by 2004 only 23% overall had

taken the plunge. A survey earlier in the year by consultants at McKinsey

found

that 70% of American

directors

and

investors

supported

the idea of

splitting

the

jobs,

which

is

standard

practice

in

Europe.

Another

disappointment is the slow progress in abolishing

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where

only

one- third

of

the

directors

are

up

for

re-election

each

year,

to

three-year

terms.

Invented

as

a

defence

against

takeover,

such

boards,

according

to

a

new

Harvard

Law

School

study

by

Lucian

Bebchuk

and

Alma

Cohen,

are

unambiguously

with

an

economically

significant reduction in firm value

corporate governance

企业管制

splitting the jobs

分裂的工作

4.

taken the plunge

采取果断行动

corporate scandals

公司丑闻

4. The dollar's tumble this week was attended by predictable shrinks from

the markets; but as it fell to a 20-month low of $$1.32 against the euro, the

only real surprise was that it had not slipped sooner. Indeed, there are good

reasons to expect its slide to continue, dragging it below the record low of

$$1.36 against the euro that it hit in December 2004. The recent decline was

triggered

by

nasty

news

about

the

American

economy.

New

figures

this

week suggested that the housing market's troubles are having a wider impact

on

the

economy.

Consumer

confidence

and

durable-goods

orders

both

fell

more

sharply

than

expected.

In

contrast,

German

business

confidence

has

risen to a 15-year high. There are also mounting concerns that central banks

in China and elsewhere, which have been piling up dollars assiduously for

years,

may

start

selling.

So,

contrary

to

popular

perceptions,

America's

economy has not significantly outperformed Europe's in recent years. Since

2000

its

structural

budget

deficit

(after

adjusting

for

the

impact

of

the

economic

cycle)

has

widened

sharply,

while

American

households'

saving

rate has plunged, causing the current-account deficit to swell. Over the same

period,

the

euro-area

economies

saw

no

fiscal

stimulus

and

household

saving barely budged. Yet cyclical factors only partly explain why the dollar

has

been

strong.

At

bottom,

its

attractiveness

is

based

more

on

structural

factors---or,

more

accurately,

on

an

illusion

about

structural

differences

between

the

American

and

European

economies.

The

main

reason

for

the

dollar's strength has been the widespread belief that the American economy

vastly outperformed the world's other rich country economies in recent years.

But the figures do not support the hypothesis. Sure, America's GDP growth

has been faster than Europe's, but that is mostly because its population has

grown

more

quickly

too.

Official

figures

of

productivity

growth,

which

should

in

theory

be

an

important

factor

driving

currency

movement,

exaggerate America's lead. If the two are measured on a comparable basis,

productivity growth over

the past

decade has been

almost

the same in

the

euro

area

as

it

has

in

America.

Even

more

important,

the

latest

figures

suggest that, whereas productivity growth is now slowing in America, it is

accelerating

in

the

euro

zone.

America's

growth,

thus,

has

been

driven

by

consumer

spending.

That

spending,

supported

by

dwindling

saving

and

increased borrowing, is clearly unsustainable; and the consequent economic

and

financial

imbalances

must

inevitably

unwind.

As

that

happens,

the

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