Spread (difference in interest rates): In the current crisis, this term primarily means the difference between the interest rate paid by an EU country borrowing money, and the rate paid for equivalent borrowing by Germany. It represents the premium paid by Greece to investors who prefer Greek from German bonds. Before Greece fell prey to…
Odious Debt: Under a UN proposal (of April 2010) a debt is considered odious not only if it is product of a suspicious exchange, but whenever its repayment involves the circumvention, violation or abolition of basic human rights. Whenever a country has to destroy jobs and cut people’s incomes, cut social and public spending, and…
Gross Domestic Product, GDP: The total value of all goods and services produced within a country during a given year, including those produced by units owned by people who live abroad. The Greek GDP in 2010 amounted to €230 bln, with a real fall of 4.5% in comparison to 2009. In 2011 the fall approached…
In April 2010, when the Greek bond spreads exploded to new heights, rendering impossible Greece’s funding from the capital markets, the Prime Minister requested, from the remote island of Castelorizo, a bailout package for the country. It is basically a 3-year loan worth €110 bln, with an original interest rate of 5%; €80 bln are…
Debt (Public): The total loan obligations of the state. It may refer to the debt of the central government (the ministries and the decentralised governance bodies), or the general government (central government plus hospitals, pension funds, public companies, and local authorities). Depending on its origin, debt is divided into internal and external. As for debt…
Credit Default Swaps (CDS): Insurance contracts which cover the buyer (e.g. a bank that buys a bond) against the occurrence that the bond issuer (e.g. a country) defaults; they are a ‘fruit’ of the 1990s. A bank which purchases government bonds may insure its bond purchases with another bank, which undertakes to pay the insurance…
This dictionary was created by members of the Economy Working Group of Syntagma Square. Its purpose is to demystify and clarify some economic and financial terms which have dominated our lives recently. It is a form of resistance to the powerful who, invoking various unheard of until yesterday terms and concepts, dump the burden of…