Useful Economist Terms

I was reading an article today in the Newspaper by Dr Money. I found that the below terms are quite useful for those interested in the movement of the economy.

And here they are:

Recession - Refers to a period of at least six months of no growth in the economy.

Depression - Refers to a period worse that recession. There has not been a real term yet to define it.

Monetary Policy - Lowering or Increase of Interest Rates by government or central bank

Fiscal Policy - Government spending and tax cuts

Unemployment rate - Number of People (above 15 years old) who are not employed, but looking for employment divided by the number of unemployed plus employed people.

Foreign Currency Reserves - A central bank's holdings of Foreign currency such as USD, Euro, yen or gold. Usually this would guraantee the strenght and stability of a currency.

Interesting note that for the past two decades, Singapore had experienced a major recession in 1985 and 1997-1998 with exception of 2001 due to Sep 11 attacks. Would the year 2008 be the next major recession in a ten year cycle? The reason behind it was the booming property market and the bubble effect that had been going on from 2007. Let's stay tune and watch.