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| Business Words in the News
Friday 21 September 2001
Vocabulary from the business news. Listen to and read the report then find explanations of difficult words below.
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Future economic effects of New York bombing
Summary: How much will last week's disasters in the USA cost? What will the longer term economic costs be? And what would be the economic effects of a military campaign by the USA? This report by Ian Pollock
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| | The News | |
| | | The economic effects of last week's terrorist attacks have started very quickly. Airlines are making big cutbacks in flights and staff as passengers stay at home; insurance companies have warned of big claims against them; the cost of doing business, such as moving commodities around the world, will rise as insurance premiums are increased for war and terrorism; and hotels in major cities are already trying to fill rooms left empty as business conferences are cancelled.
With the world, and the USA in particular, already facing a big economic slowdown things clearly will be made worse. However this is where the guess work begins - no one really knows just how much worse. In the financial markets of the City of London it's being widely assumed that the aftershock of the attack on America will take between a half and one per cent off world economic growth this year. That would be worth between 170 billion dollars and 335 billion dollars.
The longer term damage to the confidence of consumers and investors is harder to quantify. The main stock markets have slumped. And it's expected that business and people will rein in their spending.
The worst long term effect may come if there's a disastrous miscalculation by the US government. If any military action upsets the oil producing countries of the Middle East, the rest of the world, especially the USA, will be at their mercy. Any sustained increase in the price of oil, which historically has always been associated with recession, could be the most long lasting effect of them all.
Ian Pollock, BBC, London
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| | The Words
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| | | cutbacks
a cutback is a reduction in something
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| | | commodities
a formal word for anything that is sold for money
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| | | insurance premiums
regular amounts of money that is paid to companies to provide financial protection against unforseen events, like terrorism or unemployment
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| | | economic slowdown
economic slowdown is a reduction in industry and trade for a country or countries
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| | | guess work
guess work is the process or effort of trying to give an answer to something when you don't know what the correct answer is
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| | | aftershock
the negative effects or results caused by a significant event
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| | | economic growth
economic growth is an increase in industry and trade for a country or countries
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| | | confidence of (consumers and investors)
in this case, this means how prepared consumers or investors are to spend money rather than save money
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| | | slumped
if something slumps, then it falls suddenly and by a large amount
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| | | rein in
if you rein in, something then you take firm control of it
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