Argentina’s embattled central bank chief, Martin Redrado, resigned on Friday amid a row with Argentine President Cristina Kirchner over her bid to use reserves to pay down government debt.
“I feel that my term at the head of the Central Bank has concluded and I have decided definitively to leave the office of president of the Central Bank, satisfied with the duties I have performed,” Redrado told reporters.
Redrado clashed with Kirchner as she sought to set aside US$6.5 billion in central bank foreign currency reserves to pay government bonds maturing this year, a move she described as necessary to shore up Argentina’s standing in international markets.
Redrado had said paying down the debt from Argentina’s reserves could lead creditors who lost money during the country’s massive 2001 loan default laying claim to the reserves.
He harshly criticized the government on Friday, accusing Kirchner of “permanently trampling institutions” and trying to use “the savings of all Argentines.”
The dispute between the pair had verged on a full-blown crisis, after the Argentine leader issued a decree firing Redrado.
He refused to leave and a federal court blocked his dismissal Jan. 7, saying Kirchner had failed to obtain congressional approval.
For its part, the government shrugged off Redrado’s announcement, insisting that a sacked employee has no post from which to resign.
“For us, there is no resignation,” said Cabinet chief Anibal Fernandez, who stressed that a new decree will finalize Redrado’s sacking.
Redrado’s departure came as a three-member bicameral congressional commission was to determine whether he acted properly and advise Kirchner of its findings, although she was not obligated to follow its recommendations.
He had initially refused to testify before the panel unless Kirchner revoked her order removing him from office, but reversed that position and hinted he might resign after addressing the committee.
Argentina has struggled to shake off pariah status in world financial markets following a 2001 default, but Redrado’s opposition to using reserves to pay off maturing debt received support from counterparts around the world, including European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained