Finance chiefs of the G7 leading industrialized powers were to hold emergency talks on the eurozone debt crisis yesterday in a sign of heightened global alarm about the threat posed by strains inside the 17-nation monetary union.
With Greece, Ireland and Portugal all under international bailout programs, financial markets are anxious about the risks from a Spanish banking crisis and fret a Greek election on June 17 could lead Athens to leave the single currency and precipitate yet more economic turbulence.
“We have reached a point where we need to have a common understanding about the problems we are facing,” Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi told reporters.
Earlier, Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said ministers and central bankers of the US, Canada, Japan, Britain, Germany, France and Italy would hold a special conference call, raising pressure on the Europeans to act.
Toronto and Washington both called for more action.
“Markets remain skeptical that the measures taken thus far are sufficient to secure the recovery in Europe and remove the risk that the crisis will deepen,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters.
A G7 source familiar with plans for the call, likely to be held late in the Asian night, said the group would urge more progress at an EU summit on June 28 and 29, though this alone would probably disappoint global markets.
Asian stocks rallied yesterday on hopes for the G7’s intervention. The euro extended gains to a one-week high.
However, there was only a very small chance the G7 would go so far as to pledge coordinated action to curb excessive volatility in currency markets, the source added. Japan, for one, fears a strong yen, which has been a safe haven for investors during the eurozone crisis, could help tip its economy into recession.
The G7 could also call for concerted action at the upcoming summit of the wider G20 major economies in Mexico on June 18 and 19, the source said. The G20, which includes China, played a prominent role during the 2008-2009 financial crisis.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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