| Acronym |
Name |
Description |
| A$ |
Australian dollar |
|
| AUD |
Australian dollar |
|
| BLS |
Bureau of Labor Statistics |
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is the principal fact-finding agency for the Federal Government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics. |
| BOC |
Bank of Canada |
|
| BOE |
Bank of England |
|
| BOJ |
Bank of Japan |
|
| BOM |
Bank of Mexico |
|
| Bp(s) |
Basis point(s) |
A unit of measurement that is equal to 1/100th of 1%. |
| C$ |
Canadian dollar |
|
| CAD |
Canadian dollar |
|
| — |
Carry Trade |
A strategy that attempts to capture the difference in interest rates between a relatively high yielding currency and a relatively low yielding currency. An investor sells the lower yielding currency and uses the proceeds to purchase a higher yielding currency.
|
| CHF |
Swiss franc |
|
| — |
Core Inflation |
Core Inflation is a measurement of inflation that strips out some of the most volatile components in an attempt to give a better picture of the true underlying inflation trend. |
| CPI |
Consumer Price Index |
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure of inflation that reflects changes in the prices paid by urban consumers for a representative basket of goods and services. |
| DXY |
Dollar index |
The US Dollar Index® is a calculation of six currencies weighted against the US dollar: the euro, Japanese yen, British pound, Canadian dollar, Swedish krona and Swiss franc. The index is also referred to as USDX. |
| ECB |
European Central Bank |
The European Central Bank defines and implements the monetary policy for the euro area. |
| EUR |
Euro |
|
| Euribor |
Euro Interbank Offered Rate |
The rate at which a prime bank is willing to lend funds in euro to another prime bank. The EURIBOR is calculated daily for interbank deposits with a maturity of one week and one to 12 months as the average of the daily offer rates of a representative panel of prime banks. |
| FOMC |
Federal Open Market Committee |
The FOMC sets the short-term objective for open market operations--the purchases and sales of U.S. Treasury and federal agency securities--the Federal Reserve's principal tool for implementing monetary policy. |
| FRB |
Federal Reserve Board |
The Board of Governors is a governmental agency of the Federal Reserve System and composed of seven members who are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The Board of Governors is responsible for domestic and international economic analysis; with other components of the System, for the conduct of monetary policy; for supervision and regulation of certain banking organizations; for operation of much of the nation's payments system; and for administration of most of the nation's laws that protect consumers in credit transactions. |
| GBP |
British pound |
|
| GDP |
Gross Domestic Product |
The broadest measure of aggregate economic activity encompassing every measure of the economy; it measures consumption, government spending, investments and net exports. It is often used as a measure of a country's economic health. |
| HICP |
Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices |
The HICP is the measure of prices used by the Governing Council of The European Central Bank to define and assess price stability in the euro area as a whole in quantitative terms. The index of consumer prices calculated and published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Union, on the basis of a statistical methodology that has been harmonised across all EU Member States. |
| ISM |
Institute of Supply Management |
The Institute of Supply Management tracks data that reflect the economic health of the manufacturing sector—a major source of cyclical variability in the economy. The ISM manufacturing data give a detailed look at the manufacturing sector, how busy it is and where things are headed. The Federal Reserve keeps a close watch on such data to help it determine the direction of interest rates. |
| JPY |
Japanese yen |
|
| LIBOR |
London Interbank Offered Rate |
LIBOR is the rate of interest at which banks borrow funds from each other, in marketable size, in the London interbank market. |
| MXN |
Mexican peso |
|
| OECD |
Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development |
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an organization 30 member countries which work together to address the economic, social and governance challenges of globalisation as well as to exploit its opportunities. |
| OFHEA |
Office of Fair Housing Enterprise Oversight |
Government regulatory body overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac |
| PCE |
Personal Consumption Expenditures |
A measure of price changes of goods and services purchased by individuals. |
| PMI |
Purchasing Managers Index |
A sentiment indicator for manufacturing and of the economy as a whole. Through a survey of purchasing executives across hundreds of industrial companies, the PMI is a composite index based on the seasonally adjusted diffusion indices for five of the indicators with varying weights: New Orders; Production; Employment; Supplier Deliveries; and Inventories. An index reading above 50 percent indicates that economic activity is generally expanding; below 50 percent, that it is generally declining. The index is maintained by the Institute for Supply Management. |
| PPI |
Producer Price Index |
The Producer Price Index (PPI) measures the average change over time in the selling prices received by domestic producers for their output. The prices included in the PPI are from the first commercial transaction for many products and some services. |
| RBA |
Reserve Bank of Australia |
The Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) is the central bank of Australia. Its main responsibility is monetary policy. Other major roles are maintaining financial system stability and promoting the safety and efficiency of the payments system. |
| SAAR |
Seasonally Adjusted Annualized Rate |
|
| SEK |
Swedish krona |
|
| SNB |
Swiss National Bank |
|
| SONIA |
Sterling Overnight Interbank Average Rate |
The Sterling Overnight Interbank Average tracks actual Sterling overnight funding rates experienced by market participants. |
| — |
Tankan Index |
A quarterly survey of business sentiment based upon surveys sent to Japanese companies. |
| TIC |
Treasury International Capital |
The Treasury International Capital (TIC) reporting system collects data for the United States on cross-border portfolio investment flows and positions between U.S. residents (including U.S.-based branches of firms headquartered in other countries) and foreign residents (including offshore branches of U.S. firms). |
| USD |
U.S. Dollar |
|
| — |
V-Shaped Recovery |
A short-lived contraction lasting around two quarters. |
| ZEW |
Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (Centre for European Economic Research) |
The ZEW is a non-profit economic research institute which carries out economic research, economic counselling and knowledge transfer. |