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Primary balance: government net borrowing or net lending excluding<br />
interest payments (as defined by ESA 1995) on consolidated government<br />
liabilities.<br />
Rating: assessment of the creditworthiness of an enterprise against standardized<br />
qualitative and quantitative criteria. Ratings are used to determine a<br />
debtorÕs probability of default.<br />
Repatriation of capital: return of resident investorsÕ foreign investment<br />
capital into the home country, which entails the dissolution of external assets,<br />
e.g. through the sale of foreign securities or the withdrawal of cash holdings<br />
abroad.<br />
Retail payments: low-value or customer payments as opposed to largevalue<br />
or interbank payments.<br />
Return on assets: ratio of net profit after taxes to total assets.<br />
Securitization: form of transferring risk from loans or other liabilities by<br />
converting them into tradable securities issued by corporations specifically<br />
set up to this effect (so-called special purpose entities). Repayment of these<br />
securities is contingent on the redemption of the purchased debt instrument<br />
(traditional securitization).<br />
SEPA: Single Euro Payments Area. Initiative launched by the European banking<br />
industry in spring 2002 to establish standards for payment services in<br />
Europe.<br />
Stability and Growth Pact: framework which is based on two EU regulations<br />
issued in 1997 and is intended to serve as a means of safeguarding sound<br />
government finances in Stage Three of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)<br />
in order to strengthen the conditions for price stability. Over the medium<br />
term, the Stability and Growth Pact requires Member States to post a budget<br />
close to balance or in surplus.<br />
Stability programs: the euro area countriesÕ annual medium-term government<br />
plans and assumptions for the development of key economic and, in<br />
particular, budget variables in line with the requirements of the Stability<br />
and Growth Pact. Countries not participating in the euro area must submit<br />
annual convergence programs under the provisions of the Stability and Growth<br />
Pact.<br />
Glossary<br />
<strong>Annual</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>2004</strong> ×<br />
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