Eurozone finance ministers warned on Thursday that a “window of opportunity” was closing on bridging a split over Greece’s bailout program, even as they failed to heal a row with the IMF over debt relief.
The IMF and the 19-nation single currency area are battling over how much debt relief Greece needs, and over economic targets required of Athens that the IMF says are not realistic.
“The window of opportunity is still open, but will soon shut because there are elections coming,” French Finance Minister Michel Sapin said after unsuccessful talks on Greece with his eurozone counterparts.
In addition, by the summer “Greece faces important debt repayments, so we have to find a solution before then,” Sapin said, with bailout cash blocked until a solution is found.
Months of bickering have delayed progress of Greece’s 86 billion euro (US$92.4 billion) bailout program agreed in 2015 and officials are increasingly worried that elections this year in the Netherlands, France and Germany could further poison any progress.
Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem insisted that the IMF remained committed to the Greek bailout program, but that its demands were indeed strict.
“The IMF has been very clear and consistent on its position. They want the reform package to be credible, they want the fiscal trajectory to be feasible and economically viable and they want the debt to be sustainable,” said Dijsselbloem, who is also the Dutch finance minister.
Germany, Greece’s biggest creditor, says that Athens is up to the task of meeting the targets without further debt relief and has called on the Greek government to deliver on reforms.
“It’s up to the Greeks to solve the problem,” said German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, the Eurogroup’s most influential member.
At heart of the problem is a demand by the eurozone that Greece deliver a primary balance, or surplus on public spending before debt repayments, of 3.5 percent of GDP.
The target is very high — and most countries do not even come close — but Germany and other eurozone hardliners are insistent that Greece reach it for several years after its current program concludes next year.
The IMF believes that hitting the long-term target will require debt relief and has also demanded extra commitments by Athens in case it falls short.
Greek Finance Mister Euclid Tsakalotos slammed these new demands as undemocratic.
“It is not correct to ask a country in a program to legislate, two or three years beforehand, what it will do in 2018,” Tsakalotos said.
Already huge, Greece’s debt hit 311 billion euros last year, or around 180 percent of output, according to the latest EU data.
Anna Bhobho, a 31-year-old housewife from rural Zimbabwe, was once a silent observer in her home, excluded from financial and family decisionmaking in the deeply patriarchal society. Today, she is a driver of change in her village, thanks to an electric tricycle she owns. In many parts of rural sub-Saharan Africa, women have long been excluded from mainstream economic activities such as operating public transportation. However, three-wheelers powered by green energy are reversing that trend, offering financial opportunities and a newfound sense of importance. “My husband now looks up to me to take care of a large chunk of expenses,
SECTOR LEADER: TSMC can increase capacity by as much as 20 percent or more in the advanced node part of the foundry market by 2030, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to lead its peers in the advanced 2-nanometer process technology, despite competition from Samsung Electronics Co and Intel Corp, TrendForce Corp analyst Joanne Chiao (喬安) said. TSMC’s sophisticated products and its large production scale are expected to allow the company to continue dominating the global 2-nanometer process market this year, Chiao said. The world’s largest contract chipmaker is scheduled to begin mass production of chips made on the 2-nanometer process in its Hsinchu fab in the second half of this year. It would also hold a ceremony on Monday next week to
TECH CLUSTER: The US company’s new office is in the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City, a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan US chip designer Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) yesterday launched an office in Tainan’s Gueiren District (歸仁), marking a significant milestone in the development of southern Taiwan’s artificial intelligence (AI) industry, the Tainan City Government said in a statement. AMD Taiwan general manager Vincent Chern (陳民皓) presided over the opening ceremony for the company’s new office at the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City (沙崙智慧綠能科學城), a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan. Facilities in the new office include an information processing center, and a research and development (R&D) center, the Tainan Economic Development Bureau said. The Ministry
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
RSS