numeraire

Numeraire

The unit of measure, especially of price. Historically and in the present, money, gold and other commodities have been common numeraires.

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numeraire

a monetary unit that is used as the basis for denominating international exchanges in a product or commodity, and financial settlements, on a common basis. For example, the US DOLLAR is used as the numeraire of the oil trade, and the SPECIAL DRAWING UNIT is used as the numeraire of the internal financial transactions of the INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND.

Collins Dictionary of Economics, 4th ed. © C. Pass, B. Lowes, L. Davies 2005