Romania and the IMF reached a staff-level agreement to make available 475 million euros (US$683 million) in funds under its new precautionary loan, IMF mission head Jeffrey Franks said.
The mission will recommend to the fund’s board to make available the first installment of the 5 billion euros precautionary accord with the IMF and the EU after Bucharest met its quarterly budget-deficit target, Franks said at a news conference in Bucharest yesterday.
The government has sufficient reserves and has said it doesn’t plan to draw the funds, which will be stored in Washington for emergency withdrawal.
The east European country is trying to attract investors to help spur its recovery after using bailout funds to keep its economy afloat during a two-year recession. The government plans to sell minority stakes in its utilities Transgaz SA and Transelectrica SA and largest oil company OMV Petrom SA to finance investments.
Romania will have difficulty meeting its pledge to narrow its budget deficit to 3 percent of GDP next year from 4.4 percent this year, Franks said.
Romania’s central bank raised its inflation forecast for this year for the second time on Thursday to 5.1 percent as surging global prices pressure domestic food and fuel costs. The country had the EU’s highest inflation rate in March at 8 percent.
FOPLP PLANS? The chipmaker said the budget was for fab construction and manufacturing facilities, but did not comment on reports of talks with Innolux Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) board of directors yesterday approved capital appropriations of US$29.62 billion to install and upgrade the firm’s chip manufacturing process technologies, as well as its advanced and mature packaging technology capacity. The capital expenditure budget would also be for fab construction and installation of manufacturing facilities, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker said in a statement. TSMC did not comment on reports that it was in talks with flat-panel display maker Innolux Corp (群創) to acquire an idle plant as it prepares to convert manufacturing equipment into a new chip packaging production line that is to use fan-out
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), yesterday said it has signed an agreement with Innolux Corp (群創) to acquire the flat-panel display maker’s plant in Tainan for NT$17.14 billion (US$530.6 million) amid supply constraints of its advanced packaging capacity constraints. TSMC plans to use the plant, including buildings and manufacturing facilities, for future operations, the world’s biggest foundry service provider said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The chipmaker did not elaborate on whether it would convert the plant into a new panel-level packaging factory, or expand its advanced packaging chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) capacity. The chipmaker "is working whatever it
A boom: The airlines saw a rise in international flights and demand for cargo services, with the latter attributed to AI needs and vendors opting to have items delivered by air China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) and EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) have reported their highest-ever net profit for the first half of the year amid a boom in international travel and growing demand for cargo services. The global airline industry’s momentum from last year extended into the first six months of this year. That momentum along with an increase in the number of flights supported passenger revenue growth, the two airlines said on Friday. CAL’s net profit in the first six months of this year hit a new high of NT$7.14 billion (US$220 million), resulting in earnings per share of NT$1.08, the airline
The world’s biggest steel producer sounded the alarm about a crisis in China that carries the potential to send global shock waves, warning of a deeper industry downturn than major events in 2008 and 2015. Conditions in China are like a “harsh winter” that would be “longer, colder and more difficult to endure than we expected,” China Baowu Steel Group Corp (寶武鋼鐵集團) chairman Hu Wangming (胡望明) told staff at the company’s half-year meeting. For commodities including steel, the warning from Baowu underscores risks to demand and prices, as well as what ArcelorMittal SA, the No. 2 firm in the industry, called an