Meaning & use
parastatals
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“parastatals” is a form of “parastatal”. See that entry for the full set of meanings.
Meaning
nounusually pluralformalbusiness
Companies or agencies owned or partly controlled by a government, often providing public services or running industries.
Grammar: Usually used in the plural to talk about this group of organizations as a whole; the singular 'parastatal' refers to one such body.
Patterns
- a state-owned parastatal
- reform of parastatals
- subsidies to parastatals
The government announced that loss-making parastatals would be restructured.
Many parastatals in the energy sector have struggled to cover their costs.
She wrote her thesis on the management of parastatals in East Africa.
Word forms
| singular | parastatal |
|---|
Common combinations
- state-owned parastatal
- The state-owned parastatal runs the national railway network.
- reform parastatals
- The new minister promised to reform parastatals and cut waste.
- loss-making parastatals
- Loss-making parastatals drain money from the national budget.
- privatize parastatals
- Some economists argue that privatizing parastatals would improve efficiency.
Synonyms and how they differ
- state-owned enterprise
- A more general term used in business and economics; it can refer to any company owned by the state, not just those with a special public role.
- public corporation
- Often used in British English for a large organization owned by the government; it is slightly more formal and less common in African or Asian contexts.
Opposites
Word family
- parastatal adjective
- Relating to an organization of this kind, as in 'the parastatal sector'.
Commonly confused: parastatals or parasite?
parastatals vs parasite
A parasite is an organism that lives on another; 'parastatal' is about government ownership. The spelling is similar but the meanings are unrelated.
Practice
The finance minister said that ___ would be sold to private investors.
Choose one answer.
'Parastatals' are state-owned companies, which fits the context of selling to private investors. 'Parasites' are organisms, 'parasols' are sun umbrellas, and 'parallaxes' are optical effects, none of which can be sold by a finance minister.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “parastatals”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.