Text IV

Inflation.

Inflation is an overall increase in prices over a certain period of time. It’s also a worry for anybody who’s trying to make ends meet, and a headache for many governments. The rate of inflation is often in the headlines. The rate of inflation is often in the headlines. However, inflation isn’t really news. In most of Europe, for example, prices have risen year after year for at least the last 50 years. Deflation (overall decrease in prices) does happen occasionally, but the trend is mostly for the cost of living to increase.

There are lots of ways to measure inflation. One of the most popular ways is the retail price index.

This is calculated by recording increase in price for a range of goods and services. This is sometimes called a basket of goods. Some of the goods are weighted more heavily than others because they are more important. For example, food will be weighted more than the cost of a cinema ticket, because a 5% increase in food is more important than a 10% increase in the cost of seeing a film. Inflation is worked out from an average of all the price increases in the basket.

Inflation can happen for a number of reasons, but economists say there are two main culprits. These are demand-pull inflation and cost-push inflation. Demand-pull inflation can happen when the economy is growing fast. Aggregate demand begins to grow faster than suppliers can cope with. This causes a shortage, and prices rise. At first, customers may be able to pay the higher prices, and demand grows again. This forces prices up even more, and the cycle continues.

One of the characteristics of demand-pull inflation is that there is often too much money going round the economy. This is explained by the quantity theory of money. This theory uses the following equation: money supply x velocity = average price x transactions. Velocity is the speed that money is passed on from one person to another. Some economists say that velocity and the number of transactions don’t really change. The only things that change in this equation are the money supply and average prices. This means that when the money supply increases, prices will increase too. For this reason, printing money is rarely a solution for economic crises.

Cost-push inflation, on the other hand, occurs when prices rise without an increase in demand. This happens when suppliers’ variable costs increase sharply. For example, workers may demand higher wages or raw materials may become more expensive. Producers then pass these increases on to consumers by raising prices. So, as usual, we are the ones who pay!

to make ends meet – сводить концы с концами

retail price index – индекс розничных цен

a basket of goods – корзина товаров

culprits – причина (чего-либо плохого)

demand-pull inflation – инфляция спроса (инфляция, вызываемая увеличением совокупного спроса.

cost-push inflation – инфляция издержек

equation – уравнение, формула

velocity – скорость, быстрота

Text V

Unemployment.

There will always be a certain amount of unemployment in the economy. When economists talk about full employment they mean that everyone who can work and wants to work has got a job. Able workers who are not working are simply not happy with the salaries that are offered – or just can’t be bothered!

However, economies rarely reach full employment. There are a number of reasons for this, and a number of different types of unemployment. One of these is cyclical unemployment. This type of unemployment varies with the growth and recession cycle of the economy. As the economy grows, demand for labour grows and unemployment falls. As the economy contracts, unemployment grows.

A second kind of unemployment is structural unemployment. This occurs when changing public tastes or advances in technology cause a fall in demand for some types of work. For example, computer technology has revolutionized the printing industry, and many traditional printers’ jobs have become obsolete. Sometimes whole regions of a country suffer from high structural unemployment. The north-east of England, for example, was famous for many years for its shipbuilding industry. Competition from abroad forced many shipyards to close. This caused huge unemployment in the region.

How long structural unemployment lasts will depend on two things. Firstly, how easily the workforce can retrain for new jobs. This may be difficult for older workers who find it hard to learn new skills. There is also the question of who pays for the training. The second issue is mobility. Workers who are able to relocate easily to another part of the country will find new jobs more quickly.

There are two other kinds of unemployment which we should mention here. These are less serious, perhaps, but they are still difficult for governments to get rid of. The first is frictional unemployment.

This is a natural kind of unemployment that occurs when someone leaves a job and is looking for another one that suits them. Frictional unemployment often happens because people want to leave their jobs in order to change careers. Few people walk straight into another job. However, when the economy is in recession, frictional unemployment will be more common because jobs are harder to find.

The second kind is seasonal unemployment. Some industries have busy periods and periods where there is no work at all. Some freelance farm workers, for example, get most of their work in the spring and summer. Like structural unemployment, seasonal unemployment can affect whole regions of a country. Areas that rely on summer tourism, for example, suffer serious unemployment during the autumn and winter months.

cyclical unemployment – циклическая безработица

structural unemployment – структурная безработица (безработица среди рабочих некоторых профессий при наличии спроса на рабочих других профессий)

obsolete - устарелый; вышедший из употребления; старомодный

frictional unemployment – фрикционная безработица (безработица, связанная с добровольной сменой рабочими места работы и периодами временного увольнения)

seasonal unemployment – сезонная безработица (связана с отсутствием/ненадобностью какого- либо вида деятельности в определённое время года)

freelance – внештатный, независимый

2) Устная тема: Country’s Economy – Экономика страны

Цель: Дать определение, описать основные вехи в истории российской экономики и сектора экономики страны. Рассказать в каком секторе экономики вы работаете. Использовать материал в заданиях I и II.

I Прочитайте и переведите текст (устно), содержащий информацию о секторах экономики. Выучите слова и используйте для описания экономики страны. Пользуйтесь материалом в заданиях I и II для выполнения задания III.

Vocabulary

branch n — отрасль экономики

fiscal policy - бюджетно-налоговая политика

monetary policy - кредитно-денежная политика

supply n — предложение

supply of money and credit – денежная масса в обращении и предложение

кредитных средств

primary sector - первичный сектор

deal with - иметь дело с

extraction и - добыча (минерального сырья)

processing n — переработка

manufacturing sector - обрабатываю­щий сектор

distribution n — распределение, дист­рибуция

catering и - общественное питание

advanced industrialized countries - промышленно-развитые страны

The Nation's Economy

There are three sectors of the economy. Speaking about the three sectors of the economy, first of all we should define what the word “sector” means. Actually it has two meanings. The first is the sector as a part of the economy of a country. A particular sector consists of all the companies, which are involved in a particular area or work; all companies, which are run according to a particular system or ownership or financial control.

But usually the word “sector” is more often used in its second meaning – talking about different parts of the economy, such as public and private sectors. So as we see, the economic system is not simple, on the contrary, economic infrastructure is very difficult and complex: all its parts and sectors depend on each over, and even our simple actions make all the sectors of the economy run.

The economy of the country is like a machine which provides us with things we need, i.e. goods and services. The economy creates the wealth of the country. The better it works the better are the people.

The government through its economic policy plays an important role in the control of the economy machine. The major branches of economic policy are fiscal and monetary policies. Fiscal policy is concerned with taxes and government spending activities. Monetary policy is concerned with control­ling the supply of money and credit.

A nation's economy can be divided into three sectors of activity. The pri­mary sector deals with extraction of minerals, agriculture, fishing, and forest­ry. Processing of the primary sector materials and production of manufac­tured goods is the field of the manufacturing sector. The service sector provides services of various kinds such as transportation, distribution, catering as well as financial services and tourism. The role of the manufacturing sector in the advanced industrialized countries is decreasing while the service sector is be­coming more important.

II. Ответьте на вопросы.

· Which sector is contracting? Which is growing? Which is staying the same?

· Which sector do you (or do expect to)work in?

· Which areas of the economy in your country are changing most?

· Which areas have the most people working in them?

· Which areas are the most important?

· Which sectors can we not do without?

3) Контрольная работа №5 (IV семестр); выполнение одного варианта из пяти. Комментарии по выполнению контрольных работ смотри выше.

Контрольная работа № 5

по английскому языку для студентов экономических специальностей

заочного отделения

Вариант 1

I. I. Прочитайте и переведите текст (устно).

a) an alternative to implementing external flexibility

b) labour market flexibility strategy

c) new Flexicurityapproach

III. Закончите предложения по содержанию прочитанного текста.

a) external flexibility

b) stronger regulations

c) the policies and benefits

IV. Подберите эквивалент к данному русскому слову или словосочетанию.