Aggregate: The collective whole formed by several different parts. Aggregate demand is all the demand across the whole of the economy.
AGM: Annual general meeting.
Bloomberg Television: An American 24-hour financial cable TV channel reaching more than 300 million homes worldwide.
Cap: Used in finance as short for “capitalisation”, i.e. share price times number of shares, the market value of the company.
CCS: Carbon Capture and Storage; the process of isolating and reinjecting CO2 into the ground; a technique which is – and probably always will be – in the experimental phase.
CEO: Chief Executive Officer; the most senior executive in a private corporation; he or she reports to the board of directors.
CNBC: An American 24-hour cable TV channel covering financial news; owned by NBCUniversal News Group.
CPF: Central Provident Fund; a compulsory social security savings scheme for Singaporean citizens and permanent residents.
CPI: Consumer Price Index; a measure of inflation rates; core inflation is the CPI basket of consumer goods stripped of food and energy items (in Singapore, accommodation and private transport are also stripped out).
DBS: Formerly the Development Bank of Singapore; Singapore’s largest government-linked retail bank.
Derivative: A financial instrument that derives its value from another – the underlying – asset, such as a futures contract or an option.
Dow Jones: Short for Dow Jones Industrial Average; an index tracking the performance of 30 major American corporations listed on the NYSE and NASDAQ.
DTM: Demographic Transition Model; a model in development economics that teaches that mature societies tend to have stabilising and eventually declining populations.
EM: Emerging markets; less-developed countries, some with rapid catch-up economic growth, such as China, India and Brazil.
EPA: The Environmental Protection Agency; an agency under the American federal government based in Washington, D.C., with a broad mandate to provide protection for the environment.
ESG: Environmental Social and Governance; the three main criteria applied for judging the ethical and sustainable status of a company.
ETF: Exchange-Traded Fund; a type of mutual fund that tracks an index or asset class, but usually with lower cost and better liquidity.
EU: The European Union; a political and monetary union comprising 28 European nations and more than 500 million people.
EV: Electric vehicle.
Fiat currency: “Paper” money decreed by government regulation, without base in a commodity such as gold.
Fiscal policy: Government policy to regulate public taxation and spending levels in order to promote economic growth and welfare.
FTSE: Financial Times Stock Exchange; refers here to FTSE International Ltd, a British provider of stock indexes and other financial data services owned by the London Stock Exchange.
FX: Foreign exchange market; financial term for currency trading.
GDP: Gross Domestic Product; a measurement of the total output in the national economy.
GHG: Greenhouse gas; air molecules in the atmosphere such as water vapour, carbon dioxide, ozone, nitrous oxide, methane and others that cause the earth to warm.
GIC: The Government of Singapore Investment Corporation Pte Ltd; the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore investing most of the country’s public savings and pensions funds.
GMO: Genetically Modified Organism; often used in reference to food crops and animals that have been genetically altered in laboratories.
Great Recession: This event started in the US in December 2007 and lasted till the stock market revival in March 2009, causing economic contraction and unemployment throughout most of the world.
Hedge fund: Mutual fund that uses derivatives to enhance risk as well as return; large initial investment can be difficult to redeem.
IEA: International Energy Agency; Paris-based agency under the auspices of the OECD.
IPCC: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; a scientific research body under the auspices of the UN.
IQ: Intelligence Quotient; a standardised test score to indicate a person’s intelligence.
iShares: A range of ETFs managed by BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager.
IUCN: International Union for Conservation of Nature; an international organisation based in Switzerland and working for nature conservation and sustainable use of resources.
LTA: Land Transport Authority; a statutory board under the Government of Singapore.
Macroeconomics: Economics that deals with the larger national and international concepts such as national income, trade, employment, savings and interest rates.
MAS: Monetary Authority of Singapore; the central bank of Singapore. MAS conducts monetary policy, issues currency, supervises banks and manages the official foreign reserves in order to promote sustained noninflationary economic growth.
MNC: Multinational Corporation.
Monetary policy: The policy of central banks to control the money supply and interest rates in order to promote growth and full employment in the economy.
MSCI: Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI Inc); a New York-based provider of stock market indexes and other financial analysis tools.
Mutual fund: A collective fund of pooled investments actively managed by professional managers according to the terms set out in a prospectus.
MWp: Megawatt-peak; a measure of peak capacity for a solar power panel or system.
NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration; the American governmental space agency.
NASDAQ: Second only to the NYSE as the largest stock exchange in the world; based in New York; many technology companies list here.
NAV: Net Asset Value; the value of all assets minus liabilities in a mutual fund. Divide this by number of shares to get NAV per share.
NGO: Non-Governmental Organisation; a non-profit organisation set up and funded by ordinary citizens.
NYSE: The New York Stock Exchange; the big board of American listed companies and by far the largest exchange in the world by capitalisation.
OECD: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; Parisbased forum that currently includes 35 of the most developed countries.
p.a.: Per annum; usually used for interest or yield paid or calculated over one year.
PAP: People’s Action Party; the ruling political party of Singapore.
Paris climate accord: International agreement from December 2015 to limit global warming below 2°C by 2100; all countries except the US have signed on.
PV: Photovoltaic; a solar energy technology using solar panels made of semiconductor cells to generate electricity.
QE: Quantitative easing; the policy of central banks to buy government bonds and thereby expand the money supply, i.e. to “print money”.
SDGs: Sustainable Development Goals; a set of 17 goals identified by the UN ranging from fighting poverty and injustice to promoting education and responsible production.
REDD: Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation; a UN-sponsored scheme to reward sound forest management in developing countries.
REIT: Real estate investment trust; a trust investing in a specified range of properties; many are publicly listed companies and shares can be traded on a stock exchange by retail investors.
RI: Responsible Investment; another term for ethical investing.
RSPB: Royal Society for the Protection of Birds; UK-based NGO.
S&P 500: An index tracking 500 major companies listed on the NYSE as well as NASDAQ; considered the best indicator of the performance of American listed companies.
SEB: Sharing Economy Business; a new business model built on trust, internet access and sharing of resources such as homes, vehicles, peer-to-peer lending, etc.
SGX: Singapore Exchange Ltd; a listed company in Singapore functioning as an exchange for stocks, bonds, derivatives and other securities products.
SPDR funds: Standard & Poor’s Depositary Receipts, pronounced “spider”; a range of ETFs managed by State Street Global Advisors.
SRI: Sustainable Responsible Investing; also sometimes Socially Responsible Investing or Sustainable Responsible Impact investing.
STI: Straits Times Index; benchmark index for Singapore’s stock market; tracks 30 large-capitalisation component stocks as calculated by Singapore Press Holdings, SGX and FTSE Group.
Temasek: Often used in short form for Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd; an investment company wholly owned by the Singapore government and regarded as a national wealth fund.
UN: United Nations.
VC: Venture capital or venture capitalist; a type of private equity provided by wealthy individuals to fund early-stage companies with high growth potential.
WTO: World Trade Organisation; formed in 1994 to replace the 1948 GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade).
WWF: World Wide Fund for Nature; an international NGO working for biodiversity conservation and the reduction of humanity’s footprint on the environment.