EU leaders were set to back a doubling of the IMF’s resources to US$500 billion at summit talks yesterday, and were ready to pay up to a third of the increase to help the fund handle and prevent crises.
The expected move by the 27 leaders came ahead of a key meeting of the G20 in London on April 2, which is meant to tackle the worsening global downturn.
Czech Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek said on Thursday’s EU summit talks agreed that “a considerable increase” was needed to bolster the IMF’s role.
Dutch and Danish officials said the EU was ready to provide 75 billion euros (US$102 billion) of the additional 250 billion euros in IMF capital.
The EU leaders were also to call for the IMF to have more powers and cash, to allow it to watch out for new economic crises.
The EU argued that the IMF, created during the closing days of World War II, needed a greater role in surveillance and in providing more funds it could offer in emergency loans to countries in financial trouble.
Yesterday’s discussions among the EU leaders were to prepare the bloc’s position heading into the talks among the G20 group of leading industrialized and emerging countries.
The G20 talks are set to discuss global efforts in jump-starting economic growth.
EU leaders refused on Thursday to sign up to spend more cash to get out of a worsening recession, rebuffing calls by the US and European trade unions for more aid to bolster jobs.
The European Commission said that the bloc was spending 3.3 percent of GDP this year and next year on stimulus efforts — but most of this was extra welfare payments.
Government programs to boost the economy totaled 1.2 percent of GDP.
The US Federal Reserve said on Wednesday it would launch a US$1.2 trillion effort to lower rates on mortgages and other consumer debt.
Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said more deficit spending would be “a deadly idea.” He said EU nations needed to know whether a 200 billion euro EU-wide spending package was working before digging into depleted state coffers for more.
European leaders said that package would be matched by automatic spending on rising unemployment benefits and social programs to help those hit hardest by the downturn.
“The European Union has a much stronger social safety net. The United States has a much bigger problem in public finances,” Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said.
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,
China is deploying its largest navy fleet in regional waters in nearly three decades, posing a threat to Taiwan that is more pronounced than previous Chinese war games, the Ministry of National Defense said today. Speaking in Taipei, ministry spokesperson Sun Li-fang (孫立方) said the scale of the current Chinese naval deployment in an area running from the southern Japanese islands down into the South China Sea was the largest since China held war games around Taiwan ahead of 1996 Taiwanese presidential elections. China's military has yet to comment and has not confirmed it is carrying out any exercises. "The current scale is
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