The attempt to produce meaningful company accounts under inflationary conditions. During inflation, depreciation allowances on capital goods based on historical cost do not provide for their replacement, and thus overstate profits, and increases in the prices of inventories also produce paper profits in excess of real ones. On the other hand, if interest rates increase in response to inflation, counting nominal interest payments as costs but taking no credit for the decrease in the real value of a firm's debts understates true profits. There are also difficulties if the prices of a firm's capital goods, inventories, or output change at different rates from the general price level. Despite massive efforts by the accountancy profession, no fully satisfactory method of inflation accounting has yet emerged.

• appropriation account
• appropriation bill
• APR
• a priori
• arbitrage
• arbitrageur
• arbitration
• arc elasticity
• area, free-trade
• argument
• arithmetic mean
• arithmetic progression
• Arrangement, Multi-Fibre
• A-share
• Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation
• assembly line
• assessment, tax
• asset motive
• asset prices
• assets
• asset-stripping
• asset, wasting
• Assisted Area
• association
• assurance