El anterior ejercicio

English translation: the previous fiscal year

19:36 Apr 30, 2017
Spanish to English translations [PRO]
Bus/Financial - Business/Commerce (general)
Spanish term or phrase: El anterior ejercicio
The document is commissioned by OEPM and ANDEMA informing the reader about the impact of foreign trade in the Spanish economy.

In this context, would you agree with my translation as, 'previous fiscal year' or would this be 'financial year'? (Line 3)

Would this be a cultural equivalence?

Entire Source text:
El comercio exterior de servicios (según los datos de Balanza de Pagos del Banco de España) genera un crecimiento de las exportaciones (6,2 por ciento) superior al experimentado por las importaciones (4,8 por ciento), y deja un superávit de casi 28.000 millones de euros, un 9,6 por ciento superior al registrado en esta partida durante el anterior ejercicio debido, en buena medida, al superávit de la balanza turística.

My translation:
The growth of foreign trade of services according to the Balance of Payments data of the Bank of Spain was higher (6.2 percent) than that of imports (4.8 percent), creating a surplus of almost 28 billion euros. This was 9.6 per cent higher than that recorded in the previous fiscal year, largely due to the tourism balance surplus.

Thank you in advance.
GraceAlicia
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:28
English translation:the previous fiscal year
Explanation:
ejercicio: fiscal year

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Note added at 21 hrs (2017-05-01 16:38:32 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

"fiscal year" in the US and "financial year" in the UK

source: Tom West. Spanish-English Dictionary of Law and Business. 2nd edition, 2012

"año fiscal: fiscal year (USA) financial year (UK)
Selected response from:

Michael Powers (PhD)
United States
Local time: 04:28
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +5the previous fiscal year
Michael Powers (PhD)
5 +2the previous year
Albion Land
5 +1The prior fiscal year
Richard Cadena


Discussion entries: 3





  

Answers


19 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +2
the previous year


Explanation:
Both 'fiscal' and 'financial' are fine, but neither is really necessary (unless the end of the financial year has changed from 31/12 in the bank's reporting since I last covered it).

Albion Land
Local time: 10:28
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  AllegroTrans: I disagree: "financial" or "fiscal" should be used to avoid any doubt; the extra word costs nothing// @ phil: "ejercicio" invariably means fiscal/financial year; if the writer meant a calendar year they would not have used the term
4 hrs

agree  philgoddard: We don't know that it's the fiscal year they're talking about, especially since this is not about tax. It could well be the calendar year. "Ejercicio" is often best translated as "year".
8 hrs

agree  Robert Carter: Or period.
2 days 6 hrs
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1 min   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +5
the previous fiscal year


Explanation:
ejercicio: fiscal year

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 21 hrs (2017-05-01 16:38:32 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

"fiscal year" in the US and "financial year" in the UK

source: Tom West. Spanish-English Dictionary of Law and Business. 2nd edition, 2012

"año fiscal: fiscal year (USA) financial year (UK)

Michael Powers (PhD)
United States
Local time: 04:28
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 773
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.
Notes to answerer
Asker: Hi Michael, thank you for your response. My biggest concern is due to the fact that the translation is for a British audience, therefore I am unsure if fiscal or financial is the correct translation in this specific context.


Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Phoenix III
41 mins
  -> Thank you, Phoenix III - Mike :)

agree  Wilsonn Perez Reyes: sure. According to my research, "previous fiscal year" is more commonly used than "prior fiscal year"
48 mins
  -> Thank you, Wilsonn - Mike :)

agree  MPGS: :-)
53 mins
  -> Thank you, MPGS - Mike :)

agree  AllegroTrans: "financial" for UK
4 hrs
  -> Thank you, AllegroTrans - Mike :)

agree  liz askew: Previous Fiscal Year - Expenditures by Year | Benton County Oregon https://www.co.benton.or.us/finance/page/previous-fiscal-yea... Previous Fiscal Year - Expenditures by Year. Supporting Documents. PDF icon FY 2014-15 Schedule of Expenditu
14 hrs
  -> Thank you, Liz - Mike :)
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +1
The prior fiscal year


Explanation:
Tom West's Dictionary has the following:

ejercicio - fiscal year (USA), financial year (UK)

Note on "prior" vs "previous"

Most accounting and financial statement predominantly use the term "prior" in terms such as the following:

prior fiscal years
prior periods
prior year adjustments
prior year amounts
prior period financial statements
prior year losses
prior year
trade receivable balances
prior year income (loss)

The above terms are taken from the following dictionary:
Diccionario de Terminología Contable y Financiera Especializada" Spanish-English & Inglés-Español by Prof. Richard J. Cadena, published by the Instituto Mexicano de Contadores Públicos, A.C.

These extracts are taken from the following publication:
Accounting Trends And Techniques/U.S. GAAP Financial Statements
Best Practices and Disclosures - 2014/15 - Sixty-Eighth Edition
Published by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants - AICPA

Page 41
141 Paragraphs 23-24 of FASB ASC 250-10-45 require an entity to correct any error in the financial statements of a "prior" period discovered after the financial statements are issued or are available to be issued by restating the "prior-period" financial statements. Such errors are required to be reported as an error correction by restating the "prior-period" financial statements retrospectively with adjustments to the financial statements.

The use of the hyphen between "prior" and "period" is optional.

Page 45
1. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies (in part)
Paragraph three
Effective April 26, 2013, the Company changed the method of classification of certain investments previously classified as long-term investments to current. The "prior period" balances have been reclassified to conform to the current year presentation. The new method classifies these securities as current or long-term based on the nature of the securities and availability for use in current operations while the "prior" classification was based on the maturities of the investments.

Hope this helps.
28 years of experience translating from Spanish to English for Mexican member firms of big 4 and 2nd tier CPA firms 95% of the time.


--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 day6 hrs (2017-05-02 01:42:23 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Note on "prior" vs. "previous"

U.S. GAAP and IFRS use "prior" in their standard boilerplate writing style, particularly in financial statements. See the sample terms in the above comment.


    Reference: http://aicpa.org
    Reference: http://imcp.org.mx
Richard Cadena
Mexico
Local time: 02:28
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 188

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Seth Phillips: Definitely "prior". Frankly "previous" sounds odd in finance speak ;)
4 hrs
  -> Thank you, Seth. You're right. "Prior" is definitely more financial, whereas "previous" is more for general language.
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