Economics .......................................................................................................................................................................... 2
1. Economics and the business environment ............................................................................................................ 2
3. Competition ........................................................................................................................................................... 4
4. Producing ............................................................................................................................................................. 14
5. Expenditure .......................................................................................................................................................... 22
6. Business cycle ...................................................................................................................................................... 26
8. Money and capital markets ..................................................................................................................................... 30
9. International economic relations ............................................................................................................................ 38
10. The foreign exchange market. ............................................................................................................................... 48
, Economics
1. Economics and the business environment
The ready availability of goods and services to fulfil needs is termed prosperity.
Human needs are virtually unlimited, while production is limited by the availability of resources like land labour, and
capital.
The excess of human needs over what can be produced is termed scarcity.
Economic activity occurs when people (consumers, managers) make choices to maximise their prosperity using
scarce resources. (= the quest for maximum prosperity using limited sources)
The science of economics is concerned with the study of economic activity. The field is so complex that is has had to
be divided up into several sub disciplines; those that study the internal process within companies (such as financial
accounting, management accounting) and those that study the relationship with the environment or the
environment itself (such as marketing and macroeconomics).
Economics:
- Industry analysis (MESO) the study of the characteristics of markets and business sectors that companies come into
contact with, the supply and demand of goods and the changes that occur in supply and demand when prices
change.
- Macroeconomics; deals with economic activities at a national level, such as the total consumption, all company
investments, company imports and exports and the government of that country.
- Monetary economics; concerned with the phenomenon of money and the role that banks play in the economy.
- International economic relations; the study of the international trade between countries, international capital flows
and monetary relations between countries.
- Micro economics
European union (EU-27)
The term business environment covers all the changes in the environment of a business that can have an effect on
the company results.