- Marginal
- Incremental. The New York Times Financial Glossary
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1. a marginal change, increase, fall etc is very small, and not enough to make an important difference:• The country's unemployment rate declined to 7.5% in June from 7.6% in May, as a result of a marginal increase in employment.
— marginally adverb :• The US dollar gained marginally on the yen and Canadian dollar.
2. marginal products, activities, buildings etc are not considered to be the main part of a business or industry, but may still be important:• There will be the same number of hit movies, but an increased number of marginal films will perform poorly.
3. ECONOMICS relating to a change in a cost, value etc when one more thing is produced, one more dollar is earned etc:• The marginal return is the added output resulting from employing one more farmer.
4. ECONOMICS making hardly any profit:• a heavily subsidized marginal industry
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marginal UK US /ˈmɑːdʒɪnəl/ adjective► very small in amount or effect: a marginal improvement/increase/decrease »The report suggests that there has only been a marginal improvement in women's pay over the past few years.
»We have doubled our computing power at a marginal extra cost.
»The fuel-price increase will have only a marginal effect on the road fuel market.
► not very important: »Manufacturing is only a marginal sector in the UK these days.
»Their contribution to business strategy has been marginal.
► ECONOMICS producing just enough income to cover the costs of making and selling something: »Their sales volumes are marginal.
»For years, these marginal operators have only just managed to keep going and banks will not look at them favorably.
► POLITICS a marginal seat (= area with one political representative) is one in which a politician has won by a small number of votes, so it is fairly likely to be won by another party when there is an election: »These MPs have rural seats, many of them marginal.
Financial and business terms. 2012.
