Glosario de términos

• Balance of payments
  A statistical statement that summarises, for a specific period of time, the economic transactions of an economy with the rest of the world. The transactions considered are those involving goods, services and income, those involving financial claims on, and liabilities to, the rest of the world and those that are classified as transfers (such as debt forgiveness).
• Bank Lending Survey
  A quarterly survey on credit policies conducted by the Eurosystem since January 2003. This survey, which is aimed at a predetermined sample of credit institutions within the euro area, includes qualitative questions regarding loan approval criteria, the conditions applicable thereto and company and home credit demand.
• Business/corporate profitability
  Measure of corporate profits, basically in relation to sales, assets or equity. There are different corporate profitability ratios based on corporate financial statements, such as operating income ratio (sales minus operating expenses) in relation to sales, net income ratio (operating income plus other earnings and expenses, including taxes, amortisation and extraordinary income) in relation to sales, return on assets (which relates net income to total assets) and return on equity (which relates net income to funds contributed by shareholders). At a macroeconomic level, gross operating surplus, based on national accounts, for example, in relation to GDP or added value, is normally used as a measure of profitability.

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