Greek lawmakers approved the nation’s first budget in decades forecasting almost no deficit, as eurozone finance ministers prepare to meet in Brussels to discuss a potential extension to Greece’s bailout program.
Of the 300-seat parliament, 290 lawmakers voted on the plan on Sunday. Those in favor numbered 155; 134 voted against and one expressed no view, according to results read out by Greek Parliament Speaker Evangelos Meimarakis.
“We are exiting the era when bond markets were closed to us and we needed bailout loans to survive,” Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras told lawmakers before the vote. “Greece is now becoming a gateway for trade between Europe and the Far East.”
The plan sees 2.9 percent growth in GDP by next year, one of the fastest growth rates in the eurozone, as Greece is on track to emerge this year from the longest and steepest recession in more than half a century.
While general government debt is projected to fall to 171.4 percent of GDP from 177.7 percent this year, it is set to remain the highest in the EU.
The government, trailing in polls to Syriza, and with a constitutional impasse over a new president likely to trigger snap elections early next year, is pushing to exit its unpopular bailout program at the end of this year.
Samaras has vowed to replace regular emergency loan disbursements with precautionary credit lines from the IMF and the European Stability Mechanism, which would come with fewer strings attached than the current program, and only be used if the nation’s borrowing costs spike.
Greece first needs to agree with the troika of officials representing the nation’s lenders — the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF — on the measures required to complete the last review of the current program, paving the way for the disbursement of about 7 billion euros (US$8.6 billion) in aid outstanding.
This review, which started in September, remains stalled, as the nation’s creditors raise doubts about the projections of next year’s budget, and ask Greece to adopt more budget savings in order to ensure that it meets its targets.
Eurozone finance ministers scheduled to meet in Brussels yesterday and today plan to discuss a possible extension to allow the completion of the last review before the current bailout expires on Dec. 31.
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has secured three construction permits for its plan to build a state-of-the-art A14 wafer fab in Taichung, and is likely to start construction soon, the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau said yesterday. Speaking with CNA, Wang Chun-chieh (王俊傑), deputy director general of the science park bureau, said the world’s largest contract chipmaker has received three construction permits — one to build a fab to roll out sophisticated chips, another to build a central utility plant to provide water and electricity for the facility and the other to build three office buildings. With the three permits, TSMC
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
RSS