fourth-quarter figures

cookie_bcn

cookie_bcn

Senior Member
Montcada i Reixac, Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain
Catalan & Spanish; Barcelona, Spain
Hello everybody!

I'm working with a text from The Economist and I'm having problems with the meaning of fourth-quarter figures in these sentence:

"This is partly explained by expectations of a cooling global economy and of a slowdown in China in particular -although the country's fourth-quarter figures, which were stronger than expected, gave commodity bulls renewed hope."

Could someone help me to figure out the meaning? Thanks in advanced!
 
    • A quarter is a period of three months. E.g., the fourth quarter of a year includes October, November and December.
    Figures = numbers (sales, profits, losses, etc.)
     
    cookie_bcn said:
    Hello everybody!

    I'm working with a text from The Economist and I'm having problems with the meaning of fourth-quarter figures in these sentence:

    "This is partly explained by expectations of a cooling global economy and of a slowdown in China in particular -although the country's fourth-quarter figures, which were stronger than expected, gave commodity bulls renewed hope."

    Could someone help me to figure out the meaning? Thanks in advanced!
    Click to expand...

    In the world of finance, the year is divided up into quarters. In the UK it begins in April, but other countries may differ.

    Stock and share-holders are usually paid a dividend each quarter.

    It is a convenient way of making comparisons and forecasts as the year progresses.

    Here, your sentence means the figures for the last quarter of China's financial year. They were stronger than expected, giving commodity bulls renewed hope.

    LRV
     
    panjandrum said:
    Fourth-quarter figures are figures for the fourth quarter - the last three months - of the fiscal year.
    Click to expand...
    Panj. I think the Economist calls its quarters by the calendar year. After all it has many international customers and fiscal years are different in different countries - they are identical with the calendar year in France, for instance. The Economist also talks frequently of the 4th quarter of 2005, for instance, which must be the calendar year. If it wanted to talk about the fiscal year, I'm confident it would specify that it was doing so.
     
    You must log in or register to reply here.
    Back
    Top