The European Commission, the IMF and the European Central Bank, known as the “troika,” expects Athens to miss its goal of a primary budget surplus this year, German magazine Der Spiegel reported on Saturday, citing a source within the group of lenders.
Greece’s former conservative government last year said it would achieve a primary surplus of 3 percent of GDP this year, but the magazine quoted the source as saying: “Probably nothing will remain from that.”
It added Greece’s financial situation had worsened since January due to a lack of reforms under Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
Photo: Reuters
A spokesman for German Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schaeuble declined to comment on the report, that also estimated Greece’s funding gap had grown to up to 20 billion euros (US$21.78 billion).
Greece has sent its creditors a long-awaited list of reforms with a pledge to produce a small budget surplus this year in the hope that this would unlock badly needed cash, Greek government officials said on Friday.
The list estimates a primary budget surplus of 1.5 percent this year, below the 3 percent target included in the nation’s existing bailout, and growth of 1.4 percent, the official said.
Photo: Reuters
The Greek Ministry of Finance recently revised last year’s primary budget surplus to 0.3 percent, from 1.5 percent of GDP as estimated by the former conservative government and agreed with the nation’s international lenders.
The ministry said its estimate was based on preliminary data and was partly due to a shortfall of 3.9 billion euros in state revenue late last year.
Greek Deputy Prime Minister Giannis Dragasakis was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying that Greece would sell its 67 percent stake in the Piraeus Port Authority (OLP) within weeks, a U-turn by the government as it seeks funds from its creditors.
China’s COSCO Group (中國海運集團) was among five preferred bidders shortlisted under a privatization scheme agreed by the previous conservative-led government as part of a 240 billion euro ($261.37 billion) bailout program which Tsipras is seeking to renegotiate.
However, the importance of raising capital appears to have proven more important to the debt-stricken country.
Cosco and other bidders “can make a very competitive offer,” Dragasakis said during a visit by Greek ministers to China, Xinhua reported.
The deal would be completed in weeks after being slightly delayed by the change in Greek government, Dragasakis said, who hinted that Cosco was a forerunner, Xinhua reported.
OLP runs Pier 1 of Piraeus Port, Greece’s largest. China’s Cosco already manages two of Piraeus port’s cargo piers.
Greece has also launched a three-year program that includes large projects with China, Dragasakis added.
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
INDUSTRY LEADER: TSMC aims to continue outperforming the industry’s growth and makes 2025 another strong growth year, chairman and CEO C.C. Wei says Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
RSS