This paper is a first step towards a systematic evaluation of the possibilities to use membrane computing as a modeling framework for economics. We start by a simple interpretation of several basic ingredients of membrane computing in economic terms, thus proving that the (conceptual, formal, graphical) language of membrane computing can be useful for economics, and then we introduce a class of P systems (with bi-rules), which capture features of economic processes which cannot be covered by the "standard" P systems. A simple illustration of the versatility of this formalism is also given.