Greece is set to meet its financial obligations to the IMF and pay workers’ salaries and pensions next week, a government source said on Friday, easing speculation that Athens could default on its debts with unknowable consequences for global markets.
“Everything that should be paid next week, the IMF, wages, pensions, will be,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Greece must pay the IMF 460 million euros (US$501.17 million) by Thursday next week to meet the conditions of its loan agreement, and speculation had been rife it would fail to pay if forced to choose between workers and the institution.
Another source told reporters that the payment of 250 million euros in interest due later this month and the 2.4 billion euros’ worth of government bonds due to mature on April 13 and 17 were also no longer sources of anxiety for Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ administration.
Reducing Greek debt — which last year reached 176 percent of national output — is among the main priorities of Tsipras’ SYRIZA party.
IMF and EU analysts are scrutinizing a list of economic reforms proposed by Athens in a bid to unlock another 7.2 billion euros in loans to stave off possible bankruptcy and a euro exit.
Two meetings of eurozone analysts are due to take place next week on the topic of Athens’ finances.
Since 2010, Athens has received two successive loans from the EU and the IMF totaling 240 billion euros in exchange for tough austerity measures.
In related news, Cyprus is to scrap its last remaining capital controls, two years after they were imposed in the heat of its banking crisis, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said on Friday.
In a televised news conference on the economy, Anastasiades said the last of the draconian measures — imposed to avoid a run on banks — would be lifted on Monday.
“The removal of the remaining restrictions marks the final restoration of confidence in our banking system,” Anastasiades said.
“This reinforces the positive outlook for raising investment under conditions of full trust and confidence,” he said. “It strengthens the ability of the banks to raise capital and safely finance the economy.”
After a three-year recession Cyprus expects to return to marginal growth this year.
Cypriot authorities closed the banks for two weeks in March 2013 as they put the final touches on a 10 billion euro bailout from the EU and the IMF.
They imposed a raft of measures on domestic and international capital movements when the banks reopened. All domestic capital restrictions were lifted in May last year.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained