1. What two reasons axe given for saving your money in a bank account?

2. Why do people prefer to borrow money from banks?

3. Do banks do anything else for their customers other than store and lend money?

4. How do banks earn money?

5. Who decides how much money the bank keeps in reserve?

Fiscal policy

As we saw in unit 12, fiscal policy is one of the tools that governments have to keep the economy on a steady path. The two main components of fiscal policy arc changes to the tax system and changes in government spending. But what changes can governments make in these two areas, and how do changes affect the growth of the economy?

Let's look first at the tax system, and in particular at income tax. Income tax is one of the biggest sources of income for a government. Many governments operate a system called progressive taxation. This means that the more you earn, the more tax you pay. People are usually allowed to keep some of their income without paying any tax. This is called the personal allowance. The rest of their income is then taxed using the progressive system. For example:

Income                              Personal                 Tax to pay

before tax              allowance   after allowance

£0-£1,999                                                 10%

£2,000 - £29,999    £5,000                22%

£30,000 and over                                      40%

Governments can decide to change the size of the personal allowance, or change the percentage that each income group has to pay. If the economy is growing too fast, and demand for goods and services is more than the economy can supply, the government will want to slow down spending.

To do this, they can decrease the personal allowance, or they can increase the percentage to pay in tax. This will mean people have less disposable income, and spending will slow down. If the economy is slowing down too much, governments can do the opposite.

What about government spending? How does that affect economic growth? The key to this is something called the multiplier effect. To understand how this works, let's look at an example. Imagine that the economy is not growing. This will make aggregate demand fall. In turn, productivity falls. This situation means that the nation's resources are not all being used. In other words, there are surplus raw materials, machines are not being used and workers are unemployed. What the economy needs is a pull in demand for goods and services.

The government can provide this pull by spending a large amount of money on public projects. For example, imagine that the transport department decides to spend £200 million on building a new motorway. This will give work to building companies and jobs to unemployed workers. In other words, more resources are being used and the nation's productivity is increased.

Companies and workers on the motorway project will save some of the money they earn, but also spend some. The money they spend will be income for others in the economy. If half of the £200 million is spent, then the total national income has grown by this much:

£200 million + (0.5 x £200 million)

Each time a proportion of the income is passed on, the economy grows again:

£200 million + (0.5 x £200 million) + (0.5 x £100 million), etc.

In theory, the multiplier effect will continue until there is full employment and the nation's resources are being used to their fullest extent.

Переведите на английский язык:

1.    Налогово-бюджетная политика регулирует функционирование налоговой системы и государственные расходы. И то и другое оказывает воздействие на экономический рост.

2.    Во многих странах мира действует прогрессивная система налогообложения. Чем больше человек зарабатывает, тем больший налог он платит.

3.    Государственные расходы могут воздействовать на экономический рост посредством так называемого эффекта мультипликатора.

4.    Кредитно-денежная политика влияет на изменение процентных ставок и регулирует деньги, обращающиеся в экономике.

5.    Процентная ставка обычно устанавливается центральным банком страны, который также служит кредитором для коммерческих банков.

6.    При покупке домов многие люди берут в коммерческих банках ипотечные кредиты. Если растёт процентная ставка, ипотека становится дороже.

7.    Если процентная ставка низкая, компании инвестируют и расширяют свой бизнес, стоимость национальной валюты падает, а товары и услуги дешевеют для покупателей за рубежом. Экспорт начинает расти, и в экономику страны поступает больше денег.

Fiscal policy