Spain’s new austerity plan will claw back 56 billion euros (US$69 billion) for the country between now and 2014, according to figures published on Saturday by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Finance.
That figure excluded the effects of a planned energy and environment tax, the document said, which was published on the ministry’s Web site.
“The estimated impact of these measures is approximately 13.5 billion euros in the remainder of 2012, 22.9 billion euros in 2013, and 20 billion euros in 2014,” the English-language document said.
Photo: AFP
That total of 56.4 billion euros set out in the document still leaves a shortfall of some 8.6 billion euros if the government is to make the 65 billion euros in cuts required by the EU.
Recent press reports have suggested that this sum will come, at least in part, from a sharp rise in electricity bills for industry and households.
Saturday’s ministry statement said only: “This calculation excludes the valuation of the impact of further measures, including energy and environmental taxation, which will be announced at a later date.”
This week Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy — obliged by the EU to order new cuts and tax increases to meet deficit-cutting commitments — revealed Spain’s new 65 billion euro austerity package.
The measures included a sales tax rise, lower jobless benefits, and public sector pay cuts. The government approved the package on Friday, and that evening thousands of people protested on the streets of Madrid.
This month, Spain is to become the fourth eurozone country, after Greece, Ireland and Portugal, to get bailout funds when it receives the first tranche of a 100 billion euro fund for its banking sector.
Eurozone finance ministers agreed last week to release a payout of 30 billion euros by the end of the month, and 45 billion euros in mid-November.
However, in an interview published on Saturday, Germany’s central bank chief suggested Spain would need more than the bailout for its ailing banks.
European help for Spain should target the entire economy and not just the banking sector, Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann told the Boersen Zeitung.
“The banks’ balance sheets are a reflection of the overall economy,” he was quoted as saying by the financial newspaper.
Spain’s own figures, including a record 24.4 percent unemployment in the first quarter, showed Spain still had major issues, he said.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is