Vocabulary:

fuel – усиливать; способствовать росту; подстегивать, стимулировать

Это слово имеет широкий синонимический ряд: to boost, to foster, to spur, to stimulate, to fan .

service payments – обслуживание долга, погашение % по долгам.

portfolio - (инвестиционный) портфель

boost – повышать, поднимать; ускорять, увеличивать

to boost prices – повышать цены

boost household saving rates – способствовать росту уровня сбережений американских домашних хозяйств

27. Data Show Europe's Economies Are on Separate Paths

The European Union's economy sent mixed signals Tuesday, with France reporting that consumers are in a record buying mood but with unemployment in Germany rising and both Italy and Belgium fretting about stagnant growth prospects.

Although the EU economy is likely to grow by up to 2.8 percent next year, according to the Inter­national Monetary Fund, the signals indicated that the growth will be unevenly spread between buoyant economies like France and slower-moving countries like Belgium. A French government index for September measured the highest de­gree of consumer confidence since it was first used 12 years ago.

Too sharp a divergence in eco­nomic growth rates could pose prob­lems for the 11-nation European single currency area, which, unlike the United States, has few built-in correcting mechanisms.

In the United States, workers often simply move to other parts of the country in search of jobs; this is not the case in the EU. In Germany, for example, the unemployment rate has shot up in the formerly Communist East as government job creation pro­grams have come to an end.

This was the main cause of an increase in the national unemploy­ment rate, to 10.6 percent in Septem­ber from 10.5 percent a month earli­er, that left 4.13 million Germans in search of a job.

While unemployment in the former East stood at its highest level since May 1998, the number of people out of work declined in the West, which accounts for 90 percent of the output in Europe's biggest economy. Government figures showed that unemployment rose by 15,000 in the East but declined by 9.000 in the West.

Analysts said the overall rise in Germany's unemployment rate would damp expectations for an increase in the cost of borrowing money in the European single currency zone. The European Central Bank was due to make its regular pronouncement on interest rates Thursday. The benchmark refinanc­ing rate has remained at 2.5 percent since April, while inflation in the euro zone, which rose slightly to an annual rate of 1.2 percent in August, has remained well below the ECB' s ceiling of 2 percent.

In Rome, Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema warned that Italy's economy, the most sluggish in the EU, might grow less the 1.3 percent that the government had forecast for this year.

Vocabulary:

fret about – беспокоиться

growth prospects – перспективы роста экономики

buoyant economy – страна, экономика которой находится на подъеме

buoyant – оживленный

buoyancy – оживление

buoyant prices – высокие цены

single currency zone - еврозона

benchmark – база, ориентир, эталон, стандарт для сопоставлений, отправная точка

benchmark refinanc­ing rate – исходная, базовая ставка рефинансирования

TRANSLATION NOTES:

which has few built-in-correcting mechanisms – где практически отсутствует собственные корректирующие механизмы.

Правильный перевод зависит от правильной передачи оттенков значения few, little, a few,a little

few, little – мало (имеют несколько негативный оттенок, подчеркивают почти полное отсутствие чего-либо)

a few, a little – несколько, немного (См. часть Ш, раздел 3, § 10 п.10.2 )

inflation has remained well below… – инфляция остается значительно ниже…

Слово well в сочетании с наречием или союзом переводится как вполне, совершенно, значительно, очень. (См. часть Ш, раздел 3, § 9, п.9.6)