ECONOMIC CRISIS & GLOBALIZATION

Key Question : What are the consequences of a local economic crisis on the global scene ?

From https://cahier-de-prepa.fr/psi-lmb/download?id=884

GLOBALIZATION

A borderless world : un monde sans frontières

Overseas trade : le commerce extérieur
A free trader : un partisan du libre-échange

The free market : l’économie de marché

A trading partner : un partenaire commercial
Trade figures : les chiffres du commerce extérieur
A trade surplus/deficit : un excédent/déficit commercial
Capital flow : le flux de capitaux
Flight of capital : la fuite de capitaux
The case for/against globalization : Les arguments pour/contre la mondialisation
Developing countries : pays en développement
LEDCs (Least Economically Developed Countries) : les PMA (Pays les Moins Avancés)
An emerging country : un pays émergent
Fair trade : le commerce équitable
An oil-exporting country : un pays exportateur de pétrole
The exchange rate : le taux de change
To break into a market : se faire une place dans un marché
Tariffs : tarifs douaniers
Trade barriers : les barrières douanières
Customs duties : les droits de douane
To lower/remove sth : abaisser/supprimer qch
A multinational (company) : une multinationale
Outsourcing : la sous-traitance (to outsource production = sous-traiter la production)

Offshoring : la délocalisation à l'étranger (to offshore production = délocaliser la production)

To set up a factory : implanter une usine
To settle abroad : s’implanter à l’étranger
A supplier : un fournisseur
Economies of scale : économies d’échelle
Manufacturing jobs : emplois industriels
The service industry : le tertiaire
To take advantage of cheap labour : profiter de la main d’œuvre bon marché

Labour/environmental standards : les normes en matière d’emploi/d’environnement

Production/wage costs : les coûts de production/salariaux
Fierce/unfair competition : une concurrence acharnée/déloyale
To trade at a loss : vendre à perte
To lag behind : être à la traîne
To subsidize : subventionner
To compete with low-paid workers : être en concurrence avec une main d’œuvre bon marché

To catch up with sb : rattraper qn
To keep up with sb : se maintenir au même niveau que qn
Deglobalization : la démondialisation
Cultural exemption : l’exception culturelle

THE ECONOMIC CRISIS

Une phase de baisse : a downturn
Un ralentissement : a slowdown
Connaître une période difficile : to go through a bad/rough patch
Une récession : a recession, a slump
L ’effondrement de l’économie mondiale : the global economic meltdown
La déflation : deflation
La stagflation : stagflation
Baisser, diminuer : to fall, to slide, to decrease, to drop
S’effondrer, plonger, dégringoler : to slump, to collapse, to plumet, to plunge, to tumble

L ’immobilier : property, real estate
Un agent immobilier : an estate agent, a realtor
Un promoteur immobilier : a developer
La bulle/crise immobilière : the housing bubble/crisis
Les prix de l’immobilier : housing prices, property prices, real estate prices
L ’immobilier est dans le marasme : the property market is in the doldrums
Le bâtiment : the building industry
Emprunter de l’argent a une banque : to borrow money from a bank
Prêter de l’argent a qn : to lend money to sb
Taux d'intérêt : interest rate
Un prêt, un emprunt : a loan (un prêt immobilier : a mortgage)
Un usurier : a loan shark
Faire un emprunt : to take out loan
Ne pas honorer ses engagements : to default on a loan
Contracter un emprunt immobilier : to take out, to raise a mortgage
Hypothéquer sa maison : to mortgage one’s house
Une mensualité : a monthly installment
Rembourser un emprunt immobilier : to pay off a mortgage
Saisir un bien immobilier : to foreclose a mortgage
Reprendre possession d’un bien : to repossess property
Une saisie : a foreclosure
Sans abri : homeless
La crise du crédit : the credit crunch
Le secteur bancaire : the banking industry
Une banque d’affaires : an investment bank
Un fonds de pension : a pension fund
Une hausse du taux d’intérêt : a rise in/a hike in interest rates
Le taux d’inflation : the inflation rate
Réaliser des bénéfices : to make a profit
Une perte : a loss
Faire faillite : to go bankrupt
Une faillite : a bankruptcy
Des dettes : debt
Avoir des dettes : to be in debt
Etre dans le/sortir du rouge : to be in/get out of the red
Renflouer une entreprise : to bail out a company

Listen to the audio above and fill in the blanks using the forms below

There is a saying that when the United States _____(1), the rest of the world catches a cold. But what happens when China is unwell?

The world's _____(2) economy, home to more than 1.4 billion people, is facing a host of problems - including slow _____(3), high youth _____(4) and a property market in disarray.

Now the chairman of the country's heavily _____(5) _____(6) _____(7) developer, Evergrande, has been placed under police surveillance and the company's _____(8) have been suspended on the _____(9) _____(10).

While these issues add up to a major headache for Beijing, how much does it matter to the rest of the world?

Analysts believe worries of an _____(11) global catastrophe are _____(12). But multinational _____(13), their workers and even people with no direct links to China are likely to feel at least some of the effects. Ultimately, it _____(14) _____(15) who you are.

"If Chinese people start _____(16) _____(17) on _____(18) _____(19) for lunch, for example, does that affect the global economy?" asked Deborah Elms, executive director of the Asian Trade Centre in Singapore.

"The answer is not as much as you might imagine, but it certainly does hit _____(20) who directly _____(21) _____(22) _____(23) Chinese _____(24)."

Hundreds of big _____(25) companies such as Apple, Volkswagen and Burberry get a lot of their _____(26) from China's _____(27) _____(28) _____(29) and will be hit by _____(30) _____(31) less. The _____(32) effects will then be felt by the thousands of suppliers and workers around the world who rely on these companies.

When you consider that China is responsible for more than a third of the growth seen in the world, any kind of _____(33) will be felt beyond its borders.

The US _____(34) _____(35) agency Fitch said last month that China's _____(36) was "_____(37) a shadow over global _____(38) _____(39)" and _____(40) its _____(41) for the entire world in 2024.

However, according to some economists, the idea that China is the _____(42) of global _____(43) has been exaggerated.

"Mathematically, yes, China accounts for around 40% of _____(44) _____(45)," says George Magnus, an economist at the University of Oxford's China Centre.

"But who is that _____(46) _____(47)? China runs a huge _____(48) _____(49). It exports so much more than it imports, so how much China grows or doesn't grow is really more about China than it is about the rest of the world."

Nevertheless, China spending less on _____(50) and _____(51) - or on _____(52) - means less demand for _____(53) _____(54) and commodities. In August, the country imported nearly 9% less compared to the same time last year - when it was still under zero-Covid _____(55).

"Big _____(56) such as Australia, Brazil and several countries in Africa will be hit hardest by this," says Roland Rajah, director of the Indo-Pacific Development Centre at the Lowy Institute in Sydney.

Present the verbs with the appropriate tense.

China ____long 1. ( be ) the engine of global growth.

But in recent weeks, its economic slowdown _____ 2. ( alarm ) international leaders and investors who _____ 3. ( count ) no longer on it to be a bulwark against weakness elsewhere. In fact, for the first time in decades, the world’s second economy _____ 4. (be) itself the problem.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng (HSI) Index _____ 5. (slid) into a bear market on Friday, ____ 6. ( fall ) more than 20% from its recent peak in January. Last week, the Chinese yuan _____ 7. ( fall ) to its lowest level in 16 years, _____8. ( prompt ) the central bank to make its biggest defense of the currency on record by _____9. ( set ) a much higher rate to the dollar than the estimated market value.

The issue _____ 10. ( be ) that, after a rapid spurt of activity earlier this year _____ 11. ( follow ) the lifting of Covid lockdowns, growth _____12. ( stall ). Consumer prices _____ 13. ( fall), a real estate crisis _____ 14. ( deepen ) and exports _____ 15. ( be ) in a slump. Unemployment among youth _____ 16. ( get ) so bad the government _____ 17. ( stop ) publishing the data.

_____ 18. ( make) things worse, a major homebuilder and a prominent investment company _____ 19. (miss) payments to their investors in recent weeks, _____ 20. ( rekindle ) fears that the ongoing deterioration of the housing market could _____ 21.( lead) to heightened risks to financial stability.

A lack of resolute measures _____ 22. ( stimulate ) domestic demand and fears of contagion _____ 23. ( trigger ) a new round of growth downgrades, with several major investment banks _____ 24. ( cut ) their forecasts of China’s economic growth to below 5%.

“We _____ 25. ( downgrade ) China’s real GDP growth forecast … as the property downturn _____ 26. ( deepen ), external demand _____ 27.( weaken) further, and policy support _____ 28. (be) less than _____29. ( expect ),” UBS analysts _____ 30. (write) in a Monday research note.

Researchers at Nomura, Morgan Stanley and Barclays previously _____31. ( trimmer ) their forecasts.

That means China might significantly _____32. (miss) its official growth target of “around 5.5%,” which would _____33. (be) an embarrassment for the Chinese leadership under President Xi Jinping.

It’s a far cry from global financial meltdown of 2008, when China _____34. (launch) the largest stimulus package in the world and _____35. (be) the first major economy _____36. ( emerge ) from the crisis. It’s also a reversal from the early days of the pandemic, when China _____ 37. ( be ) the only major developed economy _____ 38. ( dodge) a recession.

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