Economic data comes wrapped in shorthand. Here are the terms you will meet most often on Eurospending.
% of GDP — a number measured against the size of the whole economy. Expressing debt or spending this way lets you compare a small country with a large one fairly.
Nominal vs real — nominal figures are in the prices of the day; real figures strip out inflation so you can compare across time. Real growth is the one that tells you whether the economy actually got bigger.
Year-on-year (YoY) — change compared with the same period twelve months earlier. Quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) compares with the previous quarter.
Basis point — one hundredth of a percentage point. A rate moving from 2.00% to 2.25% rose 25 basis points.
HICP — the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices, the EU's standard measure of inflation, built so member states are measured the same way.
Core inflation — inflation with volatile food and energy stripped out, used to read the underlying trend.
The Maastricht criteria — the EU's fiscal rulebook: government deficit below 3% of GDP and debt below 60% of GDP.
Eurozone vs EU — the EU is 27 member states; the eurozone is the subset that uses the euro.