Английский язык. Практический курс для решения бизнес-задач

1. What were the US macroeconomic indicators for FY 2003? 2. What was happening to budget receipts in 2003? 3. What were the trends of federal spending? 4. Why is a fiscal crisis anticipated in the US? 5. What were the expectations of the corporate America for 2005? 6. What were the US companies mainly investing in? 7. What was the financial position of corporations in 2004? 8. What were the consumer perceptions and expectations for 2005? 9. What was the situation with capital flows in Russia in 2005? 10. How did Russia’s economy perform in 2005? 11. Where were the capital inflows mainly directed? 12. What are the problems inherent in this trend? 13. How is the role of the government in Russia’s economy evolving? 14. What is the financial position of the Russian government?

Exercise 2*. Find words in the texts that describe the process of increasing/decreasing and make sentences of your own using them.

Exercise 3*. Find terms in the text that match definitions given below and make sentences of your own with each term.

1. the purchase of fixed assets, expenditure on trade investments or acquisitions of other businesses and expenditure on current assets

2. the reduction in the value of an asset through wear and tear; а reduction in the value of a currency in terms of gold or other currencies in a free market

3. the total amount of goods, services and financial transactions between one country and the rest of the world

4. a bankers’ bank at the center of a country’s monetary system

5. a tax levied on the assessable profits of a company

6. financial year

7. investment in the foreign operations of a business

8. the money value of the goods and services produced by the economy in a period of time

9. stocks of raw materials, work in progress and finished goods

10. the provision of money for public expenditure by taxation and borrowing

Exercise 4*. Fill in the blanks using terms given below.

The Curse of $50 a Barrel

With oil prices hovering above $50 a barrel, Russia is raking in……. This year oil exports are……. to earn Russia $90 billion, up from $14.5 billion in 1998. With so much……. pouring in, and oil prices way above historical……., it’s reasonable to think economists would be…… about Russia’s economy. They’re not.

No one is more gloomy than President Vladimir V. Putin’s economic…… Andrei Illarionov, who recently coined the term «Venezuelaization» to describe the fate he fears awaits Russia’s economy. The growing role of the state in Russia’s……. adds to the risk of economic……… Illarionov is not alone in warning that, unless properly managed, Russia’s oil……. could end up doing more harm than good. Economists warn of the «resource curse», the surprising but statistically valid theory that, more often than not, abundance of……. damages a country’s economic…….

One concern is that, like many oil-rich countries before it, Russia may decide to blow its oil……. on profligate government……… risking an unpleasant fiscal and economic…….. when oil prices fall. To guard against that temptation, Russia wisely created a……. last year. But political pressure is growing to use the rapidly……. fund, already worth $28 billion, to……. expenditures. Under the original plan…….. on oil that fetched more than $20 a barrel were funneled into the Fund, but in April the Cabinet decided to……. that…… to $27, releasing an extra $10 billion for the budget this year.

The revised policy toward the Stabilization Fund is just the latest sign that advocates of tight……., led by Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, are losing ground to Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and other champions of more……. policies. In January, Moscow was forced to hike pensions and other social…….. by $7 billion – around 1% of…….. – to sweeten the pill of controversial social-benefit reforms that were designed to replace in-kind benefits with……..

Finance minister Kudrin has publicly slammed recent moves to weaken the Stabilization Fund and loosen……. True, Russia’s…… look so strong and oil prices so firm that the risk from higher spending seems manageable. In 2004, Russia ran a……. equivalent to 4.1% of GDP.