Greece’s provisional agreement with creditors to avert a default started to crack as European officials said the nation’s latest proposals fell far short of what was tabled two weeks ago and Greek ministers floated the prospect of a referendum if their reforms are rejected.
The list of measures Greece’s government sent to eurozone finance ministers on Friday last week, including the idea of hiring non-professional tax collectors such as tourists, is “far” from complete and the nation probably would not receive an aid disbursement this month, Eurogroup Chairman and Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Sunday.
Greece’s anti-austerity government, elected in January on a promise to renegotiate the terms of a 240 billion euro (US$260 billion) bailout, has to present detailed proposals to European creditors or risk running out of cash as soon as this month. The renewed tensions threaten to temper a rally in Greek bonds sparked by optimism over the provisional accord.
“It seems their money box is almost empty,” Dijsselbloem said.
Greece is seeking the disbursement of an outstanding aid tranche totaling about 7 billion euros. Without access to capital markets, its only sources of financing are emergency loans from the eurozone’s crisis fund and the IMF. Its banks are being kept afloat by an Emergency Liquidity Assistance lifeline, subject to approval by the European Central Bank.
“I can only say that we have money to pay salaries and pensions of public employees,” Greek Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis said on Sunday. “For the rest we will see.”
Varoufakis said that if the nation’s creditors raise requests which are not acceptable to the government, then the people of Greece might have to decide on how to break the deadlock. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras also signaled the referendum option is being considered.
“If we were to hold a referendum tomorrow with the question: ‘Do you want your dignity or a continuation of this unworthy policy?’ everyone would choose dignity regardless of difficulties that would accompany that decision,” Tsipras told Der Spiegel news magazine, in an interview published on Saturday.
Tsipras is walking a tightrope between sticking to his election pledges, which found resonance in a nation with a 26 percent unemployment rate, and avoiding default and a possible exit from the eurozone. Some of his post-election glow is starting to fade, one opinion poll showed.
A survey published in the Efimerida Ton Syntakton newspaper on Saturday showed that 64 percent of Greeks had a positive opinion of the government, down from 83.6 percent last month.
“Maintaining the unity of the anti-bailout coalition, while striking a deal which would ease the immense pressure on the economy, is proving to be almost a ‘Mission Impossible,’” said George Pagoulatos, a professor of European politics and economy at the Athens University of Economics and Business.
The Tsipras administration on Friday last week sent a set of commitments to Dijsselbloem in the hope that the policy proposals would pave the way for the disbursement of aid.
Two officials representing creditor institutions said the proposals, which include tackling tax avoidance through non-professional inspectors and equipping citizens with chipped smart cards, are not enough to unlock bailout funds. The plans are amateurish and do not signal substantial progress toward meeting the commitments it made on Feb. 20, they said, asking not to be identified as negotiations are private.
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
For weeks now, the global tech industry has been waiting for a major artificial intelligence (AI) launch from DeepSeek (深度求索), seen as a benchmark for China’s progress in the fast-moving field. More than a year has passed since the start-up put Chinese AI on the map in early last year with a low-cost chatbot that performed at a similar level to US rivals. However, despite reports and rumors about its imminent release, DeepSeek’s next-generation “V4” model is nowhere in sight. Speculation is also swirling over the geopolitical implications of which computer chips were chosen to train and power the new
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid. Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tuesday in a post on X, Musk’s social media platform. That is a stage in the development process that typically helps make chips more powerful or reliable. The chipmaker’s shares jumped 4.2 percent to US$52.91 in New York trading on Tuesday. The Terafab project is a grand plan by Musk to eventually manufacture his own chips for
RSS