The eurozone appeared on Tuesday night to be in a stronger position to survive the debt crisis after EU figures revealed member governments cut their annual budget deficits last year.
The EU statistics office, Eurostat, said the aggregate budget deficit in the 17 countries using the currency fell to 4.1 percent of GDP last year from 6.2 percent in 2010 — the first year of the sovereign debt crisis.
Ireland cut its annual deficit from 31 percent of GDP to 13.4 percent, while Germany brought the deficit on its annual budget down to 0.8 percent, Eurostat said.
The figures were published before a flurry of meetings that culminated in the Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) Enda Kenny gaining a commitment from French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel that cheaper funds would be made available to prevent Dublin’s bank rescue from bankrupting the country.
Hollande said after talks with Kenny that he supported calls to treat the Irish banking sector as “a special case” after the Dublin government was almost brought to its knees by the crippling cost of bailing out the Irish Republic’s main banks.
Merkel previously blocked direct recapitalization of banks with eurozone rescue funds until a banking supervisor is fully operational late next year, but issued a joint statement with Kenny on Sunday affirming that Ireland’s bank rescue was a “special case.”
“I said Ireland was a special case and should be treated as such,” Hollande told reporters after his meeting with Kenny.
Asked if recapitalization could be backdated, he said: “Yes, recapitalization already took place through their own funds so the Eurogroup will take that into account.”
The Eurogroup represents the 17 nations in the single currency zone and has sought to impose strict austerity measures on members with escalating debt.
Eurostat said although annual budget deficits had fallen, eurozone public debt rose to 87.3 percent of GDP last year from 85.4 percent.
Ireland’s public debt jumped to 106.4 percent from 92.2 percent in 2010 as the benefits of spending cuts were undermined by a fall in tax receipts and a prolonged recession.
Greece, where the crisis started, had the highest debt ratio in Europe last year, reaching 170.6 percent of GDP, or 355 billion euros (US$462 billion). It reduced its annual deficit to 9.4 percent from 10.7 percent in 2010 and 15.6 percent in 2009.
Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras said his government would receive 31.5 billion euros in loans next month if the Athens parliament pushed through 13.5 billion euros in spending cuts and tax increases, though it remained unclear that MPs would do so.
Greek Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras warned MPs that “people would go hungry” should Greece failed to take receipt of its next rescue loans.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last