Особенности перевода неопределенно-личных и безличных предложений в англоязычных текстах экономической направленности

6 Taxes

Taxes are a compulsory financial contribution by a person or body of persons towards the expenditure of a public authority.

The government has a choice of taxing income, wealth or consumption to finance its expenditure on defence, social services, municipal services etc.

The main forms of direct tax are income tax paid by individuals and corporation tax paid by businesses. Income tax in Great Britain dates from the 1790s and has until recently been the major source to generate tax revenue. Income tax can be progressive, proportional or regressive. The idea of a progressive tax is to take more from those who earn more.

Indirect taxes are imposed on certain products or services that people buy. The main ones are value added tax and excise duties.

Pressure to increase government expenditure may lead to a search of new taxes.

Some people argue for a more direct link between specific taxes and particular items of government expenditure. For example, taxes from motorists could be spent on roads and the transport system while the tax from alcohol and tobacco could be spent on the national health service. But it is impossible for the government to match all individual taxes with particular spending programmes.

The major principles of a tax system are that it should be equitable and reasonable. Then the incentive to avoid and evade tax would be less. The system of tax collection shouldn't be costly and shouldn't contain a lot of tax allowances and exemptions.

7 The Budget

The budget is the government's main economic statement of the year. It is a forecast of revenue and expenditure for the conning year.

In Great Britain the budget is prepared and usually issued in March. In a major speech to Parliament, the Chancellor of the Exchequer reviews the nation's economic performance and describes the government's economic objectives and the economic policies it intends to follow in order to achieve them.

In November 1993 Great Britain introduced the "so-called" Unified Budget. Under this budget the government presents taxation and spending proposals to Parliament at the same time. The Budget now covers both the government's taxation plans for the coming financial year and its spending plans for the next three years. The proposals are announced to the House of Commons by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Budget statement and are published in the Financial Statement and Budget Report. This report also contains a review of recent developments in the economy, together with an economic forecast, and sets out the fiscal and monetary policies.

The main sources of revenue are:

* Tax on income;

* Taxes on expenditure, which include VAT (Value Added Tax) and customs and excise duties;

* National Insurance contributions.

8 Consumer spending

The modern market economy is populated by three types of economic agents, whose interaction constitutes economic activity: consumers, producers, and the government. The main purpose of the economy is to produce goods and services for the satisfaction of the needs of consumers.

Consumers, typically representing households, spend their income to buy consumer goods and services or to save.

How does a consumer distribute the income earned by him amongst a variety of goods and services offered in the market?

There are different factors affecting his decisions. For instance, a fall in the price of a good or service will increase his consumption of it, while a rise in its price will have the opposite effect.

Then a rise in his real income will naturally result in an increased consumption of goods and services, a fall in real income having the opposite effect1.

The pattern of consumer expenditure is also influenced by tastes, consumer preferences and family circumstances. As incomes rise, expenditure on basic goods will form a smaller proportion of total spending. The terms "necessities" and "luxuries" are of little use in analyzing consumer expenditure because what are today's luxuries will probably be tomorrow's necessities.

It should be stressed here, that some customers, however, want to have high-quality products even when quality means a higher price. Some other customers prefer foreign products.

The amount spent on goods and services and changes in this variable have a big impact on the level of economic activity: the increase in consumer spending creates new employment opportunities and causes better living standards.

9 The Big Mac index

Jan 12th 2012, 16:53 by The Economist online

THE ECONOMIST's Big Mac index is based on the theory of purchasing-power parity: in the long run, exchange rates should adjust to equal the price of a basket of goods and services in different countries. This particular basket holds a McDonald's Big Mac, whose price around the world we compared with its American average of $4.20.

According to burgernomics the Swiss franc is a meaty 62% overvalued. The exchange rate that would equalise the price of a Swiss Big Mac with an American one is SFr1.55 to the dollar; the actual exchange rate is only 0.96. The cheapest burger is found in India, costing just $1.62. Though because Big Macs are not sold in India, we take the price of a Maharaja Mac, which is made with chicken instead of beef.

The euro, which recently fell to a 16-month low against the dollar, is now trading at less than €1.30 to the greenback. The last time we served up our index in July 2011, the euro was 21% overvalued against the dollar, but it is now just 6% overvalued. Other European currencies have also weakened against the dollar since our previous index, notably the Hungarian forint and Czech koruna, which have fallen by 23% and 16% respectively. Six months ago both currencies were close to fair value, but they are now undervalued by 37% and 18%.

10 Patterns of foreign trade

Currently, foreign firms can participate in the Soviet market in a number of ways.

These include direct sales, trade through agents, production cooperation, the signing of licensing agreements, the creation of joint ventures.

Direct Sales.

The most common means of doing business with the USSR is through straight sales of foreign goods in exchange for foreign currency or Soviet-produced commodities (countertrade).

In a countertrade transaction the Seller agrees to take full or partial payment in goods.

Countertrade covers barter, counterpurchase, buyback. A barter deal involves an exchange of goods to an equal va¬lue. As a rule, little or no currency is involved.

Counterpurchase refers to short and medium-term transactions. The Western Seller commits himself to purchase an agreed value of the Buyer's products to help finance the original sale. The counterpurchase element of a contract may be about 10 percent of the total contract value.

Buyback refers to long-term contracts and is connected with the development projects supported with huge credits. Buyback involves two phases, one for the delivery of equipment to the Buyer and a second for the delivery of the end product to the Seller.

Foreign Economic Restructuring has affected the conduct of foreign trade, the banking system and the role of the Soviet enterprise in the economy.

The main points of the foreign trade reform are:

- enterprises now have the right to conduct foreign trade;

- industrial enterprises are allowed to maintain hard curency bank accounts;

- greater emphasis is made on exports and world marketing technique.

- inward investment by means of joint ventures is encouraged;

Some plants and factories team up with research centres to form a consortium. Their final objective is to sell the equipment produced in a package deal.

One of the most acute problems facing Soviet economy externally and internally is non-convertibility of the rouble which is a serious handicap in relations with its trade counterparts.

The Economic reform sets a task to make the rouble convertible.

11 «Positive» market segmentation

Market segmenting is dividing the market into groups of individual markets with similar wants or needs that a company divides the market into distinct groups who have distinct needs, wants, behavior or who might want different products & services. Broadly, markets can be divided according to a number of general criteria, such as by industry or public versus private although industrial market segmentation is quite different from consumer market segmentation, both have similar objectives. All of these methods of segmentation are merely proxies for true segments, which don't always fit into convenient demographic boundaries.

Consumer-based market segmentation can be performed on a product specific basis, to provide a close match between specific products and individuals. However, a number of generic market segment systems also exist, e.g. the Nielsen Claritas PRIZM system provides a broad segmentation of the population of the United States based on the statistical analysis of household and geo-demographic data.

The process of segmentation is distinct from targeting (choosing which segments to address) and positioning (designing an appropriate marketing mix for each segment). The overall intent is to identify groups of similar customers and potential customers; to prioritize the groups to address; to understand their behavior; and to respond with appropriate marketing strategies that satisfy the different preferences of each chosen segment. Revenues are thus improved.

Improved segmentation can lead to significantly improved marketing effectiveness. Distinct segments can have different industry structures and thus have higher or lower attractiveness (Michael Porter). With the right segmentation, the right lists can be purchased, advertising results can be improved and customer satisfaction can be increased leading to better reputation.

Market segmentation is the act of identifying and profiling distinct groups of buyers who might require separate products and/or marketing mixes. It is the process of splitting customers into different groups or segments, within which customers with similar characteristics have similar needs. Benefits:

1) marketers are in a better position to locate and compare marketing opportunities

2) marketers can easily and effectively formulate and implement marketing programs

3) marketers can make finer adjustments in their products and marketing communications.

4) Competitive strengths and weaknesses can be assessed effectively

5) Segmentation leads to more effective utilisation of marketing resources

12 Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is the act of being an entrepreneur, which is a French word meaning "one who undertakes innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods". This may result in new organizations or may be part of revitalizing mature organizations in response to a perceived opportunity. The most obvious form of entrepreneurship is that of starting new businesses (referred as Startup Company); however, in recent years, the term has been extended to include social and political forms of entrepreneurial activity. When entrepreneurship is describing activities within a firm or large organization it is referred to as intra-preneurship and may include corporate venturing, when large entities spin-off organizations.

According to Paul Reynolds, entrepreneurship scholar and creator of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, "by the time they reach their retirement years, half of all working men in the United States probably have a period of self-employment of one or more years; one in four may have engaged in self-employment for six or more years. Participating in a new business creation is a common activity among U.S. workers over their course of their careers." And in recent years has been documented by scholars such as David Audretsch to be a major driver of economic growth in both the United States and Western Europe.

Entrepreneurial activities are substantially different depending on the type of organization that is being started. Entrepreneurship ranges in scale from solo projects (even involving the entrepreneur only part-time) to major undertakings creating many job opportunities. Many "high value" entrepreneurial ventures seek venture capital or angel funding (seed money) in order to raise capital to build the business. Angel investors generally seek returns of 20-30% and more extensive involvement in the business. Many kinds of organizations now exist to support would-be entrepreneurs, including specialized government agencies, business incubators, science parks, and some NGOs. In more recent times, the term entrepreneurship has been extended to include elements not related necessarily to business formation activity such as conceptualizations of entrepreneurship as a specific mindset (see also entrepreneurial mindset) resulting in entrepreneurial initiatives e.g. in the form of social entrepreneurship, political entrepreneurship, or knowledge entrepreneurship have emerged.

13 Factors affecting demand

Innumerable factors and circumstances could affect a buyer's willingness or ability to buy a good. Some of the more common factors are:

- Good's own price: The basic demand relationship is between the price of a good and the quantity supplied. Generally the relationship is negative or inverse meaning that an increase in price will induce a decrease in the quantity demanded. This negative relationship is embodied in the downward slope of the consumer demand curve. The assumption of an inverse relationship is reasonable and intuitive. If the price of a new novel is high, a person might decide to borrow the book from the public library rather than buy it. Or if the price of a new equipment is high a firm may decide to repair existing equipment rather than replacing it.

- Price of related goods: The principal related goods are complements and substitutes. A complement is a good that is used with the primary good. Examples include hotdogs and mustard; beer and pretzels, automobiles and gasoline. Close complements behave as a single good. If the price of the complement goes up the quantity demanded of the other good goes down. Mathematically, the variable representing the complementary good would have a negative coefficient. For example, where Q is quantity of automobiles demanded, P is the price of automobiles and Pg is the price of gasoline. The other main category of related goods are substitutes. Substitutes are goods that can be used in place of the primary good. The mathematical relationship between the substitute and the good in question is negative. If the price of the substitute goes down the demand for the good in question goes up,

- Income: The more money you have the more likely you are to buy a good.

- Taste or preferences: the greater the desire to own a good the more likely you are to buy the good. There is a basic distinction between desire and demand. Desire is a measure of the willingness to buy a good. Demand is the willingness and ability to affect one's desires. It is assumed that tastes and preferences are relatively constant.

- Consumer expectations about future prices and income: If a consumer believes that the price of the good will be higher in the future he is more likely to purchase the good now. If the consumer expects that her income will be higher in the future the consumer may buy the good now. In other words positive expectations about future income may encourage present consumption (Demand increases).

This list is not exhaustive. All facts and circumstances that a buyer finds relevant to his willingness or ability to buy goods can affect demand. For example, a person caught in an unexpected storm is more likely to buy an umbrella than if the weather were bright and sunny.

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