The rate of price increase indicates the percentage by which the price level has risen within a given period of time, e.g. a month or a year. If the term inflation rate is used instead of price inflation rate, this denotes a situation in which the extent of the price increase is no longer consistent with the common perception of price stability and purchasing power is declining at a considerable rate.

The rate of technological progress describes that part of increased productivity which cannot be explained by a more profitable combination of the factors of production – labour and capital – and is thus attributed to technological improvements.

A rating classifies debtors or securities in terms of their creditworthiness or credit quality. These classifications are generally carried out by rating agencies. The best creditworthiness rankings are denoted as AAA or Aaa by the most well-known agencies, while more negative ratings are denoted with different combinations of letters and numbers. The credit quality of debtors or securities rated BBB- or better is deemed to be comparatively high. Those with a lower rating are classified as speculative; such securities are also referred to as high-yield bonds. The EU Regulation on Credit Rating Agencies was adopted in autumn 2009. Since then, rating agencies operating in the EU have been supervised by the competent authorities.

Rating agencies are business enterprises that rate the creditworthiness of other business enterprises, banks, countries and securities issued by them. As a result, they issue their assessments of how well they believe a debtor (i.e. the issuer of the securities) can meet their payment obligations in future and of how high they believe the risk of default on those securities to be. Given the growing number of issuers and the often extremely complex funding instruments, these assessments can help investors in making their investment decisions. The worse the rating, the higher the remuneration a debtor must pay to compensate for the higher risk, and vice versa.

The real interest rate is the nominal interest rate less the current inflation rate. It indicates the rate of interest allowing for the actual depreciation in the value of money. Alternatively, the real interest rate can also be defined as the nominal interest rate less the expected inflation rate, that is the rate of interest after taking account of the expected depreciation in the value of money.

The real wage is the remuneration employees receive for their labour (nominal wage), adjusted for changes in the price level. The development of the real wage over time provides a measure of how the purchasing power of wages and salaries is developing. 

The adjustment or rearrangement of exchange rates within fixed exchange rate regimes.

The term "recession" generally refers to an economic downturn following a boom. In the context of economic policy, a recession is often said to occur when gross domestic product (GDP) contracts in at least two consecutive quarters. According to a broader definition, recession is already given when the GDP growth rate is lower than in the preceding periods.  

The Recovery and Resolution Act (Sanierungs- und Abwicklungsgesetz or SAG) came into effect in 2015 and transposes the European Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD) into German law. It contains, amongst other things, provisions on the recovery and resolution plans and early intervention and governs the orderly resolution of banks. The overarching goal is to be able to deal with distressed institutions without jeopardising financial stability or using the taxpayers' money.

A reference interest rate (or reference rate) is defined as a benchmark interest rate used when setting corresponding interest rates in financial transactions. This interest rate is determined and published by a central body. Examples of reference interest rates are LIBOR, EURIBOR and €STR.

The reference value for monetary growth was a guideline set by the Governing Council of the ECB, which indicated the rate of monetary growth the Governing Council considered consistent with the objective of price stability under normal circumstances. Similar to the Bundesbank’s monetary target in the past, the Governing Council derived the reference value from three key figures: the growth of potential output, a target for the desired increase in the price level over the medium term, and an estimate of the trend in the velocity of circulation of money. When the euro was introduced in 1999, the Governing Council set the reference value at an annual growth rate in the money supply of 4.5 per cent. However, the information content of money growth for future inflation developments proved to be limited. As a result, the reference value for monetary growth already fell into the background in 2003 and has not been reviewed since then.

Refinancing in the broadest sense of the term refers to commercial banks – which "fund" the economy – procuring funding themselves. More narrowly defined, refinancing is the term used for commercial banks obtaining central bank money from the central bank. An individual bank can also secure central bank money on the (interbank) money market. The banking system as a whole can, however, only obtain additional central bank money from the central bank – it can only refinance itself through the central bank. The banking system's need for refinancing is the starting point for monetary policy. Refinancing is typically carried out via open market operations.

Banks set up under private law with a differing scope of business. As well as credit institutions restricted to a local or regional catchment area, regional banks also include institutions operating throughout Germany.

The Large Exposures Regulation governs the recording, measuring, weighting and reporting of large exposures by banks and financial services institutions. The intent behind this regulation is to broaden the diversification of assets and prevent the excessive concentration of risk on any individual borrower.

A repurchase agreement refers to the purchase of an asset combined with an agreement to buy back the asset at a later date (the asset is sold and repurchased). Repurchase agreements, or repos, concluded between a central bank and commercial banks as part of the central bank's open market policy are used to provide or withdraw central bank money for a specified period of time.

Reserve assets are a central bank's holdings of gold and foreign exchange (including special drawing rights). The central bank can use them to finance payment imbalances in foreign trade or for interventions in the foreign exchange market. Many central banks hold a stock of foreign exchange because the existence of reserves increases market players' trust in the stability of the domestic currency.

A reserve currency is a globally accepted currency or basket currency (Special Drawing Rights) that is held in reserve by central banks to secure international liquidity. Currencies must, in principle, be fully convertible (convertibility) in order to be accepted internationally as a reserve currency. Quantitatively speaking, the most important reserve currencies are the US dollar and the euro.

A resolution agency is a legal construct to which structured securities, other risk positions such as non-performing loans, and even entire business units of a bank can be transferred in order to enable the bank to wind up these risk-carrying portfolios in an orderly manner. This relieves the bank of capital requirements and write-down pressure, and allows the bank to reorient itself with a promising new business model. The owners of the bank remain economically responsible for the resolution agency. This means that the owners must continue to offset any losses incurred by the resolution agency. The Financial Market Stabilisation Agency (FMSA) has established two resolution agencies: Erste Abwicklungsanstalt (EAA) and FMS Wertmanagement (FMS-WM). The FMSA is responsible for the expanded legal supervision of both of these resolution agencies. Once all transferred risk positions and business units have been sold off, the FMSA will dissolve the resolution agencies.

The Act on the Restructuring and Orderly Resolution of Credit Institutions, on the Establishment of a Restructuring Fund for Credit Institutions and on the Extension of the Limitation Period for the Liability of Governing Bodies under Company Law – Restructuring Act for short – (Gesetz zur Restrukturierung und geordneten Abwicklung von Kreditinstituten, zur Errichtung eines Restruktuierungsfonds für Kreditinstitute und zur Verlängerung der Verjährungsfrist der aktienrechtlichen Organhaftung (Restrukturierungsgesetz)) is a German omnibus act from 2010 that is aimed at enabling serious difficulties of a systemically important bank to be overcome without jeopardising the stability of the financial system. In the meantime, a new recovery and resolution regime for banks has also been established at European level consisting of the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD) and the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM). The Recovery and Resolution Act (SAG) transposed the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD) into German law.

Created in 2011 by the Restructuring Fund Act, the Restructuring Fund is a special fund of the German Federal government which is financed by the banking industry via the bank levy. Its assets are to be used to restructure and reorganise systemically important banks that have got into trouble and, if necessary, to wind up non-systemically important operations. The Restructuring Fund's target funding totals €70 billion. The Fund can take out up to €100 billion in loans if necessary. The Restructuring Fund was created to improve financial system stability; its capital base means that it can even restructure a big bank if it is called upon to do so, with the banking system footing the bill rather than the taxpayer. The restructuring fund is managed by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) as part of its function as National Resolution Authority.

The Retail Payment System (RPS) is a payment transaction platform operated by the Deutsche Bundesbank for the cost-effective settlement of non-urgent, national and – in conjunction with the SEPA-Clearer – cross-border payments such as credit transfers and direct debits. The RPS complements the payment transaction platforms of private-sector financial networks, which process a large proportion of cashless retail payments in Germany.

Retail payments are primarily cashless transactions carried out by private individuals. First criterion is the payment amount and, second, the level of urgency. Retail payments are smaller amounts which are not time-critical. Larger amounts or urgent payments between banks are not carried out via retail payment systems. Examples of retail payment transactions include salary payments, rent payments or other transfers between private individuals and cashless payments at the point of sale.

The return is the income on capital invested. The return is usually expressed as a percentage and is generally calculated for a period of one year. The return on a fixed-income bond is derived from its market price, nominal interest rate and term.

Reverse transactions describe operations whereby central bank money is provided to, or withdrawn from, the banking system for a certain period of time. Reverse transactions can be conducted as credit operations against collateral or as repurchase agreements. To inject central bank money (liquidity) into the banking system under a repurchase agreement, the Eurosystem buys securities from commercial banks on condition that these banks will buy them back after a certain period at a predefined price. The central bank credits the purchase price for these securities to the commercial banks' accounts, thereby increasing the volume of central bank money provided. To withdraw liquidity from the banking system, the Eurosystem sells securities to the banks and repurchases them at a later date.

Risk diversification is a business management strategy to reduce overall risk by breaking it down into several smaller individual risks. This approach can be applied to investments or the choice of a firm’s product range, for example. Risk can be diversified in many different ways, e.g. across regions, seasons, personnel or properties.

The various risks should not be positively correlated; they should tend to be negatively correlated. As a result, greater diversification implies a smaller risk of losses, as the positive and negative fluctuations in the individual risks largely balance each other out.

The risk premium is a valuation of the risk taken on with a financial instrument. It is priced into the agreed payments so that the risk of loss is compensated by the possibility of higher profit if the risk does not materialise. Comparing the expected profit from a risky financial instrument with a risk-free investment (holding a government bond with the highest credit rating) can indicate a good estimate of the risk premium.

The rotation system in the ECB Governing Council is an arrangement which, under certain circumstances, revokes the principle that each member state of the monetary union has one vote on all decisions in the ECB Governing Council. The rotation system replaces this principle. It came into force after 19 countries had joined the monetary union. Under this system, the central banks are divided into two groups depending on the economic power and size of the financial sector in their home countries. The five "stronger states" (including Germany) jointly receive four votes, which rotate on a monthly basis. The second group, comprising 14 or more countries, receives eleven voting rights, which also rotate monthly. Only the six members of the ECB Executive Board permanently retain their voting rights. Once the rotation system is applied, the president of the Deutsche Bundesbank will have no voting rights in the ECB Governing Council in every fifth month, for example, but he will be able to participate in meetings and discussions. The intended effect of the rotation system is for the larger member states to retain a certain quantitative weighting in votes even after many smaller states join the monetary union. Once there are 22 member states, three groups will be formed, with the first group remaining unchanged. The second group, comprising half of all the states, will then receive eight votes and the third group, with the smallest states, will receive three voting rights.