This Year 12 Recap video covers the basics around the topic of trade.

The trade balance of a country provides an important indicator of how competitive a country is with the rest of the world. In many economics exam papers, there will be an essay question testing students knowledge of the trading relationship between countries and how a change in this relationship will affect the relative performance of the economies. Therefore students need to be confident with the terminology surrounding trade and the factors which cause a country to run either a surplus or a deficit.  

This Year 12 Recap video covers the basics around the topic of the balance of payments.

The balance of payments is a collection of individual trading accounts which measure how dependent an economy is on the rest of the world to satisfy its needs and wants. The accounts can be used to assess the external competitiveness of a country with the rest of the world. In an exam situation, students need to understand the basic structure of the balance of payments accounts to be able to appreciate that there is an inverse link between the performance on the current account and the financial account. By understanding the basic principles of this trading account, a student can start to analyse in more detail the impact of an exchange rate, interest rate and inflation rate change on the performance n competitiveness of an economy.

This Year 12 Recap video covers the basics around the topic of unemployment.

Unemployment is the measure of the number of people of working age who are out of work but are making active strides to get back into work. The number of people who are currently unemployed provides a key indicator of the underlying health of an economy. However, economists are always wary of drawing too many concrete conclusions from this metric as it does not include those who are not part of the labour force. In macro exam style questions, the disruption of the macroeconomic equilibrium and its direct impact on unemployment is a basic analysis tool which can provide students with the kickstart for their evaluation points. 

This Year 12 Recap video covers the basics around the topic of deflation.

Many would perceive that falling prices would boost an economy as the real incomes of consumers will surge. However, the interesting debating point amongst economists is that if a country experiences protracted spells of deflation then it may negatively hit spending and growth as consumers delay their purchases in anticipation of further price cuts. Therefore, students need to be armed with both sides of the deflation argument when going into an exam question surrounding inflation/deflation, as this represents an opportunistic moment to earn crucial evaluation marks.

This Year 12 Recap video covers the basics around the topic of inflation.

Inflation is an important economic concept for students to be comfortable with as it has crucial spill-over effects on the long-term growth potential of an economy. Policymakers and central banks are keen to keep inflation low and stable to create stability in individual's purchasing power and ensure growth is not crowded out at the expense of escalating inflation. In many macro essay questions, inflation is a good topic to discuss at great length because it not only affects the strength of the domestic economy but also affects the long-term competitiveness of an economy with its main international trading partners.

This Year 12 Recap video covers the topic of the macroeconomic objectives.

In many macroeconomic essay questions, students will have to be able to draw upon their knowledge of AD/AS diagrams to apply to real-world examples the impact of policy changes on the growth prospects of a country. In the analysis stage of their answer, they will need to assess the impact of the relative curve shift on the economy's main macroeconomic objectives. This is a key skill in macro essay questions as it gives students the breathing space to evaluate the winners and losers of an economic change.