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Economics vocabulary · Core Concepts

Private sector

Meaning in economics, with examples

nounCore term

In economics, private sector means: The part of the economy made up of businesses and organisations that are owned by individuals or companies rather than by the state.

In Turkish: özel sektör

How it is used

Almost always used with the: the private sector. Common in news and policy talk about jobs, investment and debt: private sector employment, private sector credit, private sector investment. The opposite is the public sector.

Example sentences

  1. Most new jobs last year were created in the private sector.

  2. The private sector's foreign debt is closely watched by investors.

Common collocations

  • private sector employment
  • private sector investment
  • private sector debt
  • private sector wages
  • public sectorThe part of the economy owned, funded or run by the state, including government departments, public schools and hospitals, and state-owned companies.
  • market economyAn economic system in which prices, production and wages are mainly decided by supply and demand in free markets, not by government plans.
  • investmentSpending on things that will be used to produce more in the future, such as machines, buildings and software; in GDP data it does not include buying shares.
  • privatisationThe sale of state-owned companies or services to private owners, or handing over their management to the private sector.

More terms: Core Concepts

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