The European Commission, the IMF and the European Central Bank, known as the “troika,” expects Athens to miss its goal of a primary budget surplus this year, German magazine Der Spiegel reported on Saturday, citing a source within the group of lenders.
Greece’s former conservative government last year said it would achieve a primary surplus of 3 percent of GDP this year, but the magazine quoted the source as saying: “Probably nothing will remain from that.”
It added Greece’s financial situation had worsened since January due to a lack of reforms under Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
Photo: Reuters
A spokesman for German Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schaeuble declined to comment on the report, that also estimated Greece’s funding gap had grown to up to 20 billion euros (US$21.78 billion).
Greece has sent its creditors a long-awaited list of reforms with a pledge to produce a small budget surplus this year in the hope that this would unlock badly needed cash, Greek government officials said on Friday.
The list estimates a primary budget surplus of 1.5 percent this year, below the 3 percent target included in the nation’s existing bailout, and growth of 1.4 percent, the official said.
Photo: Reuters
The Greek Ministry of Finance recently revised last year’s primary budget surplus to 0.3 percent, from 1.5 percent of GDP as estimated by the former conservative government and agreed with the nation’s international lenders.
The ministry said its estimate was based on preliminary data and was partly due to a shortfall of 3.9 billion euros in state revenue late last year.
Greek Deputy Prime Minister Giannis Dragasakis was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying that Greece would sell its 67 percent stake in the Piraeus Port Authority (OLP) within weeks, a U-turn by the government as it seeks funds from its creditors.
China’s COSCO Group (中國海運集團) was among five preferred bidders shortlisted under a privatization scheme agreed by the previous conservative-led government as part of a 240 billion euro ($261.37 billion) bailout program which Tsipras is seeking to renegotiate.
However, the importance of raising capital appears to have proven more important to the debt-stricken country.
Cosco and other bidders “can make a very competitive offer,” Dragasakis said during a visit by Greek ministers to China, Xinhua reported.
The deal would be completed in weeks after being slightly delayed by the change in Greek government, Dragasakis said, who hinted that Cosco was a forerunner, Xinhua reported.
OLP runs Pier 1 of Piraeus Port, Greece’s largest. China’s Cosco already manages two of Piraeus port’s cargo piers.
Greece has also launched a three-year program that includes large projects with China, Dragasakis added.
France cannot afford to ignore the third credit-rating reduction in less than a year, French Minister of Finance Roland Lescure said. “Three agencies have downgraded us and we can’t ignore this cloud,” he told Franceinfo on Saturday, speaking just hours after S&P lowered his country’s credit rating to “A+” from “AA-” in an unscheduled move. “Fundamentally, it’s an additional cloud to a weather forecast that was already pretty gray. It’s a call for lucidity and responsibility,” he said, adding that this is “a call to be serious.” The credit assessor’s move means France has lost its double-A rating at two of the
Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), founder and CEO of US-based artificial intelligence chip designer Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Friday celebrated the first Nvidia Blackwell wafer produced on US soil. Huang visited TSMC’s advanced wafer fab in the US state of Arizona and joined the Taiwanese chipmaker’s executives to witness the efforts to “build the infrastructure that powers the world’s AI factories, right here in America,” Nvidia said in a statement. At the event, Huang joined Y.L. Wang (王英郎), vice president of operations at TSMC, in signing their names on the Blackwell wafer to
AI BOOST: Although Taiwan’s reliance on Chinese rare earth elements is limited, it could face indirect impacts from supply issues and price volatility, an economist said DBS Bank Ltd (星展銀行) has sharply raised its forecast for Taiwan’s economic growth this year to 5.6 percent, citing stronger-than-expected exports and investment linked to artificial intelligence (AI), as it said that the current momentum could peak soon. The acceleration of the global AI race has fueled a surge in Taiwan’s AI-related capital spending and exports of information and communications technology (ICT) products, which have been key drivers of growth this year. “We have revised our GDP forecast for Taiwan upward to 5.6 percent from 4 percent, an upgrade that mainly reflects stronger-than-expected AI-related exports and investment in the third
RARE EARTHS: The call between the US Treasury Secretary and his Chinese counterpart came as Washington sought to rally G7 partners in response to China’s export controls China and the US on Saturday agreed to conduct another round of trade negotiations in the coming week, as the world’s two biggest economies seek to avoid another damaging tit-for-tat tariff battle. Beijing last week announced sweeping controls on the critical rare earths industry, prompting US President Donald Trump to threaten 100 percent tariffs on imports from China in retaliation. Trump had also threatened to cancel his expected meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea later this month on the sidelines of the APEC summit. In the latest indication of efforts to resolve their dispute, Chinese state media reported that
RSS