Glossary

 

  • General Agreements to Borrow (GAB)

    An agreement concluded in 1962 by the 10 richest IMF member countries, including Belgium, whereby they made additional resources available to the Fund on top of the fixed quota. The GAB participants are known as the G10, although in 1964 Switzerland became the eleventh country to join.

  • General Commission for the Euro

    The General Commission for the Euro was set up in Belgium in 1996 to coordinate and stimulate public and private sector initiatives relating to the switch to the single European currency, and to ensure that the changeover to the euro went as smoothly as possible. The Commission was installed at the National Bank of Belgium, which provided the staff for it and arranged its activities. The General Commission for the Euro was dissolved soon after the introduction of the euro notes and coins in the spring of 2002.

  • General Council (ECB)

    One of the decision-making bodies of the ECB. It comprises the President and the Vice-President of the ECB and the governors of all EU national central banks.

  • Governing Council (ECB)

    The supreme decision-making body of the ECB. It comprises all the members of the Executive Board of the ECB and the governors of the national central banks of the countries that have adopted the euro.

  • Gross domestic product (GDP)

    The gross domestic product (GDP) is the market value of all goods and services produced in one year. It is the gross value added, i.e. before depreciation, of the national economy.

  • Gutt operation

    Post-war currency reform directed by the Finance Minister Camille Gutt, which aimed to reduce the money supply and stabilise prices. Money was taken out of circulation and bank deposits, demand accounts and time accounts were frozen. The “funds temporarily unavailable” were released in 1949 while the “permanently frozen” sums were repaid in stages from the 1950s onwards.