US and EU unemployment will reach 10 percent this year as the global economic slump causes the economies of the 30-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to contract, OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria said.
“This is unprecedented; we have not seen this in many decades,” Gurria said in a TV interview in Rome.
The OECD will release its latest forecasts today and will predict a contraction of 4.2 percent to 4.3 percent for the world’s most industrialized countries, Gurria said. That compares with its previous forecast in November for a 0.3 percent contraction.
The deepening global recession means that countries need to do more to lift their economies out of the economic slump, he said.
“A modest stimulus package is not enough, because the downturn, the recession was a lot deeper and lending a lot harder than we thought; so we need more to get out of the recession,” he said.
Leaders of the G20 countries will meet in London on Thursday to try to forge a common response to the crisis. US calls for European countries to spend more on stimulus plans to try to limit the effects of the slowdown have been met with some resistance by government’s that have spent years trying to tame their budget deficits.
“Some countries, like the US, are pushing hard, because they are making very big efforts; the Chinese are making very big efforts,” Gurria said. “They can’t carry everybody on their shoulders; they need everybody else to do this, and the rest of the world has different capacities to have this fiscal expansion.”
Gurria said that the G20 would also need to consider stepped-up regulation of financial markets and adopt other measures to restore confidence in and among the world’s banks to get lending going again.
“This is the real objective,” he said. “So you have to give confidence, you have to give guarantees, you have to separate bad assets and good assets, you have to recapitalize the banks. All that, in a context of a new regulatory world, in order for the banks to lend again.”
PLA MANEUVERS: Although Beijing has yet to formally announce military drills, its coast guard vessels have been spotted near and around Taiwan since Friday The Taiwanese military is on high alert and is closely monitoring the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) air and naval deployments after Beijing yesterday reserved seven airspace areas east of its Zhejiang and Fujian provinces through Wednesday. Beijing’s action was perceived as a precursor to a potential third “Joint Sword” military exercise, which national security experts said the PLA could launch following President William Lai’s (賴清德) state visits to the nation’s three Pacific allies and stopovers in Hawaii and Guam last week. Unlike the Joint Sword military exercises in May and October, when Beijing provided detailed information about the affected areas, it
CHINA: The activities come amid speculation that Beijing might launch military exercises in response to Lai’s recent visit to Pacific allies The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday said China had nearly doubled the number of its warships operating around the nation in the previous 24 hours, ahead of what security sources expect would be a new round of war games. China’s military activities come amid speculation Beijing might organize military drills around the nation in response to President William Lai’s (賴清德) recent visit to Pacific allies, including stops in Hawaii and Guam, a US territory. Lai returned from the week-long trip on Friday night. Beijing has held two rounds of war games around Taiwan this year, and sends ships and military planes
Five flights have been arranged to help nearly 2,000 Taiwanese tourists return home from Okinawa after being stranded due to cruise ship maintenance issues, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications announced yesterday. China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), and EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) have arranged five flights with a total of 748 additional seats to transport 1,857 passengers from the MSC Bellissima back to Taiwan, the ministry said. The flights have been scheduled for yesterday and today by the Civil Aviation Administration, with the cruise operator covering all associated costs. The MSC Bellissima, carrying 4,341 passengers, departed from Keelung on Wednesday last week for Okinawa,
US president-elect Donald Trump said he would “never say” if Washington is committed to defending Taiwan from China, but “I would prefer that they do not do it [ an attack],” adding that he has a “good relationship” with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). “I never say because I have to negotiate things, right?” Trump said in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press host Kristen Welker after saying he would not reveal his incoming administration’s stance on Taiwan’s defense in the event of an attack. Asked the question again, Trump, in a reference to China, said: “I would prefer that they
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