Ireland exited its three-year bailout program yesterday, becoming the first eurozone nation to do so, but authorities warned of further austerity to ensure economic recovery.
Dublin turned to the IMF and EU in November 2010 for an 85 billion euro (US$115 billion) rescue package after a banking crash and one of history’s worst housing bubbles.
After painful belt-tightening, Ireland is returning unaided to the international lending markets — while eurozone strugglers Greece, Portugal and Cyprus remain locked into the bailout process.
“It’s an important moment for Ireland and for our people,” Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny told the Irish Times newspaper in an interview published on Friday. “Our credibility is being restored internationally and our name is in good standing.”
Kenny was to deliver a state of the nation-type address on Irish television yesterday, just the sixth time a Taoiseach has done so in Irish history, other than during elections.
The end of the bailout means Dublin will now have greater control over economic decisionmaking after three years of stringent oversight by the EU, IMF and the European Central Bank — the so-called troika of lenders.
The troika insisted on tax rises, structural reforms and the sale of state assets in exchange for the bailout, and assessed Ireland’s progress every three months.
Ireland has returned to growth, unemployment is falling and the banking sector has been reduced to a more appropriate scale to match the size of the economy, but analysts agree the banks remain a risk.
The IMF approved the 12th and last review of Ireland’s progress on Friday, allowing a final US$890 million payout.
To mark the end of the bailout program, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde praised Ireland’s “steadfast policy implementation.”
However, Lagarde warned of “significant economic challenges” ahead.
“Unemployment is too high, public debt sustainability remains fragile and heavy private sector debts and banks’ slow progress in resolving nonperforming loans weigh on domestic demand,” Lagarde said in a statement.
Later this week, Dublin will publish a medium-term economic strategy outlining its post-bailout policies.
“This isn’t the end of the road. We must continue with the same types of policies as the deficit is too high,” Irish Minister of Finance Michael Noonan said.
As in Greece, Portugal and Cyprus, high unemployment levels are one of the major risks to economic recovery in Ireland.
Irish unemployment is falling, but remained at a high level of 12.8 percent at the end of the third quarter, a drop from 13.6 percent over three months.
“It’s a combination of focusing in on fixing the things that were broken in our competitiveness, offering and driving the transition into exporting sectors,” Irish Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton said. “I think it’s showing that effort is delivering well but there’s still a long way to go.”
The domestic unit of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker Nexperia BV will soon be able to produce semiconductors locally within China, according to two company sources. Nexperia is at the center of a global tug-of-war over critical semiconductor technology, with a Dutch court in February ordering a probe into alleged mismanagement at the company. The geopolitical tussle has disrupted supply chains, with some carmakers reportedly forced to cut production due to chip shortages. Local production would allow Nexperia’s domestic arm, Nexperia Semiconductors (China) Ltd (安世半導體中國), to bypass restrictions in place since October on the supply of silicon wafers — etched with tiny components to
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
Taiwan is open to joining a global liquefied natural gas (LNG) program if one is created, but on the condition that countries provide delivery even in a scenario where there is a conflict with China, an energy department official said yesterday. While Taiwan’s priority is to have enough LNG at home, the nation is open to exploring potential strategic reserves in other countries such as Japan or South Korea, Energy Administration Deputy Director-General Chen Chung-hsien (陳崇憲) said. While the LNG market does not have a global reserve for emergencies like that of oil, the concept has been raised a few times —
AI-FUELED DEMAND: The company has been benefiting from the skyrocketing prices for DRAM chips amid the AI frenzy, especially its core product — DDR4 DRAM chips DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday reported that its revenue for the first quarter surged 582.91 percent to NT$49.09 billion (US$1.54 billion) from NT$7.19 billion a year earlier, as the supply crunch caused chip price spikes. Last quarter’s figure is the highest on record. On a quarterly basis, revenue jumped 63.14 percent from NT$30.09 billion, the company said. In January, Nanya Technology expected global DRAM supply scarcity to continue through the first half of 2028, thanks to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) forecast prices of standard DRAM chips would rise between 58 percent and 63
RSS