財經單字：Inflation、Credit、Liquidity、Interest Rate

INFLATION 通貨膨脹
定義：an increase in the overall level of prices in the economy, resulting in a fall in the value of money

CREDIT
這個字有很多意思，以下列出跟金融有關的定義：

• an arrangement that you make, with a shop/store for example, to pay later for something you buy (賒欠)
• money that you borrow from a bank; a loan (借貸)
• the status of being trusted to pay back money to somebody who lends it to you (借錢償還的信用) > credit card
• if you or your bank account are in credit, there is money in the account (結餘)
• a sum of money paid into a bank account; a record of the payment (存款金額、貸記) <> debit: a sum of money taken from a bank account 借項

延伸字：
CREDITOR (n.) a person, company etc. that sb. owes money to (債權人、債主) = lender
DEBTOR (n.) a person, a country or an organization that owes money (債務人；借方) = borrower

CREDIT在Wikipedia上的定義：

Credit is the trust which allows one party to provide resources to another party where that second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt), but instead arranges either to repay or return those resources (or other materials of equal value) at a later date. The resources provided may be financial, or they may consist of goods or services. Credit encompasses any form of deferred payment.

LIQUIDITY 資產流動性
定義：the ease with which an asset can be converted into the economy's medium of exchange (即資產能夠輕易轉變成交易媒介)

Note: LIQUIDATION, liquidate (v.) to close a business and sell everything it owns in order to pay debts


INTEREST RATE 利率
定義：An interest rate is the rate at which interest is paid by a borrower for the use of money that they borrow from a lender.
利率是掌控貨幣狀況的重要工具，提升利率可以用來抑制通貨膨脹，降低利率則可以用來刺激經濟活動。當利率升高的時候，借錢要償金就會升高，因此人們的錢變少了，商品也必須降低價格以吸引消費者。相對地，利率低的時候，借貸條件會變得容易，因此可以活絡經濟。