Statistical Terms Glossary

A meta-language used to construct other markup languages. XML is a simple dialect of SGML, sometimes referred to as SGML-lite.

Is the Standard International Trade Classification which is a statistical classification of the commodities entering external trade. It is designed to provide the commodity aggregates requited for purposes of economic analysis and to facilitate the international comparison of trade-by-commodity data.

A set of detailed instructions describing how to carry out a routine activity.

(Domain: Education, Human Resources, Performance Evaluation) The task of deriving levels of performance on educational or professional assessments, by which decisions or classifications of persons (and corresponding inferences) will be made.

Statistical units are the units for which information is sought and for which statistics are ultimately compiled. Commonly used types of statistical units for economic statistics are the enterprise, the enterprise group, the kind-of-activity unit (KAU), the local unit and the establishment (in Europe called local kind-of-activity unit (LKAU)). In national accounts also the institutional unit is of importance.

Reliefs unrelated to the actual expenses incurred by taxpayers and automatically available to all taxpayers who satisfy the eligibility rules specified in the legislation are counted as standard reliefs, including also deductions for compulsory social security contributions.

Mission: Unification of standardization activities and following their implementation according to the best international practices which contribute to protect the customer, environment and public health, as well as to promote industry for the benefit of the economy and sustained development in the member states.

Standards refers to defining and establishing uniform specifications and characteristics for products and/or services.

Established and appointed by the IEEE SA Board of Governors (BOG) the IEEE SA Standards Board encourages and coordinates the development and revision of IEEE standards.

An IMF lending facility established in 1952 through which a member country can use IMF financing up to a specified amount to overcome short-term or cyclical balance of payments difficulties. Instalments are normally phased on a quarterly basis, with their release conditional upon the member’s meeting performance criteria, such as monetary and budgetary targets. These criteria allow both the member and the IMF to assess the member’s progress in policy implementation and may signal the need for further corrective policies.

A bank commitment to loan money up to a specified amount for a specific period, to be used only in a certain contingency.

Standby credit is a commitment to lend up to a specified amount for a specific period, to be used only in a certain contingency

In investment an agreement that is conditional on stock purchase.

Lending operations that are under preparation and are likely to be ready for the fiscal year following the fiscal year in question but may be ready sooner and which could substitute for projects in the fiscal year in question.

A letter of credit issued to cover against a particular contingency.

Loan which is not part of the current schedule but which can be presented to the Board if other projects slip.

A central bank facility available to counterparties on their own initiative. The Eurosystem offers two overnight standing facilities: the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility.

The total weight of a group (or stock) of living organisms (e.g.fish, plancton) or of some defined fraction of it (e.g. spawners), in an area, at a particular time. See: Abundance. Example: the spawning biomass of the cod stock on the Georges Bank in 1999.