Gold Reserves:

Gold Reserves are the gold bullion stocked by a country's central bank. Under the gold standard, paper currencies could be exchanged for gold on demand. Although the gold standard has been abandoned, many central banks still stock gold bullion.

Exchange Rates:

An exchange rate is the price of one country's currency in terms of another. When the value of each currency was tied to gold under the Gold Standard, exchange rates were "fixed." Under the Bretton Woods system that operated from the early post-war period up to the early 1970s, exchange rates were "fixed but adjustable." Today, exchange rates among the major currencies fluctuate or float, but many other exchange rates are fixed under various arrangements.

Deficit financing:

Deficit financing occurs when a government spends more money than it can raise by taxation or other means. John Maynard Keynes advocated this policy during the Great Depression to inject purchasing power into the sluggish economy and thereby to increase employment.

Multilateral trade:

Multilateral trade refers to the exchange of goods and services among many countries. During the Great Depression it often happened that a country tried to protect itself from outside competition by forming a trade alliance with another country (bilateralism) or with a group of countries (regional trading blocs). These alliances extended favorable trading conditions (low tariffs and high quotas) to their members, and thus erected trade barriers to those countries outside the alliance.

Balance of payments:

A country's balance of payments is a record of the economic transactions of the country's residents with the rest of the world. Its balance of payments is said to be in overall balance when the amount of money leaving the country to purchase imports of goods and services and to invest in other countries equals the amount of money entering the country through the sale of exports and the inflow of investments. Deficits (shortfalls) or surpluses in the balance of payments can be brought into balance by shifts in trade or investment.