The Bloomberg Way: A Guide for Reporters and Editors, 13th Edition

Chapter 17Economies

The story of an economy is more than a dry recitation of numbers released by governments and the study of those facts and figures by economists. It’s about people making, selling and buying goods and services, and that’s always a compelling tale to tell.

Whenever we write about an economy, we ought to consider these five elements: inflation, interest rates, jobs, sales and production. We measure an economy’s growth by how much wealth and how many jobs it creates and the value of goods, services and food produced, bought and sold.

A growing economy prompts investors in financial and commodity markets to wonder whether the government or its central bank will raise interest rates to maintain the current value of money and ...