Glossary

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Name	Term description
Balance between goods and services account	In this account are recorded, for the economy as a whole and by branch ingoings and outgoings relating to goods and services. Ingoings comprise production and imports. Outgoings comprise: intermediate consumption, final consumption, gross fixed capital formation, changes in inventories, exports.It is balanced account in nature, hence it does not generate any further balances.
Balance of payments	Accounting system that records all economic transactions that took place during a given period.
Bank identifier code (BIC)	A universal means of identifying financial institutions in order to facilitate the automated processing of telecommunication messages in financial environments.
Banks	This aggregate comprises all banks resident in Italy.
Base period	Period of time taken as reference for the calculation of an index number (or any other ratio). As a rule, the base period corresponds to one year, but it may vary from one day to a number of years, depending on the data available and on the purposes of the analysis.
Base period	The base period is usually understood to mean the period with which all the other periods are compared. - the price reference period ? the period that provides the prices to which the prices in other periods are compared. The prices of the price reference period appear in the denominators of the price relatives, or price ratios, used to calculate the index. The price reference period is typically designated as period 0;- the weight reference period ? the period, usually one or more years, of which the expenditures serve as weights for the index. When the expenditures are hybrid (i.e., the quantities of one period are valued at the prices of some other period), the weight reference period is the period to which the quantities refer. The weight reference period is typically designated as period b in this manual;- the index reference period ? the period for which the value of the index is set equal to 100. It should be noted that, in practice, the duration of the weight reference period for a CPI is typically a year, or even two or more years, whereas the CPI is calculated monthly or quarterly, the duration of the price reference period being a month or quarter. Thus, the weight and price reference periods seldom coincide in practice, at least when a CPI is first calculated, although the price and index reference periods frequently coincide.
Basic price	The basic price is the price receivable by the producers from the purchaser for a unit of a good or service produced as output minus any tax payable on that unit as a consequence of its production or sale (i.e. taxes on products), plus any subsidy receivable on that unit as a consequence of its production or sale (i.e. subsidies on products). It excludes any transport charges invoiced separately by the producer. It includes any transport margins charged by the producer on the same invoice, even when they are included as a separate item on the invoice.
Basic price	The basic price is the price receivable by the producers from the purchaser for a unit of a good or service produced as output minus any tax payable on that unit as a consequence of its production or sale (i.e. taxes on products), plus any subsidy receivable on that unit as a consequence of its production or sale (i.e. subsidies on products). It excludes any transport charges invoiced separately by the producer. It includes any transport margins charged by the producer on the same invoice, even when they are included as a separate item on the invoice.
Basic research	Basic research is experimental or theoretical work undertaken primarily to acquire new knowledge of the underlying foundations of phenomena and observable facts, without any particular application or use in view. Basic research analyses properties, structures, and relationships with a view to formulating and testing hypotheses, theories or laws. The results of basic research are not generally sold but are usually published in scientific journals or circulated to interested colleagues. Occasionally, basic research may be "classified" for security reasons.
Basket	A group of products used in the calculation of price indices. Each product in the basket has a different weight, according to its importance.
Bed and Breakfast	accommodation establishments that provide accommodation and breakfast for a limited number of rooms and/or beds. They are classified in the category "dwellings rented from private individuals or professional agencies"
Bedroom	A bedroom is a unit formed by one room or groups of rooms constituting an indivisible rental whole in an accommodation establishment or dwelling.Rooms may be single, double or multiple, depending on whether they are equipped permanently to sleep one, two or several people. The number of existing rooms is the number the establishment habitually has available to accommodate guests (tourists). If a room is used as a permanent residence (for more than one year) it should not be included. Bathrooms and toilets do not count as a room. This number should generally coincide with the number of units recorded in the establishment recorder.
Birth rate	Ratio of the number of births to the average population during the reference year, multiplied by 1 000
Book	Is a printed document, non-periodical, with at least 49 pages (excluding the covers)
Building	Is a roofed construction, containing at least one housing unit, separated from other constructions by streets, empty spaces or main walls that rise without interruption from the foundations to the roof; it must have one or more free access routes on to street and may have one or more autonomous staircases.
Building extension	Is the enlargement (vertical of horizontal) of an already existing building that generates an increase in the building's volume.
Building permit	A building permit is an authorisation to start work on a building project. As such, a permit is the final stage of planning and building authorisations from public authorities, prior to the start of work.
Bus	Vehicle used for the trasnport of goods. It has more than nine seats, including the driver's seat.
Business Register	Legislation provides that every enterprise must be registered in the Business Register. The Business Registers are kept by the Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Handicrafts and Agriculture (CCIAA) and contain all the major information relating to each enterprise.