One day after Greece became the first developed economy to default on a loan with the IMF, the head of the international lender on Wednesday suggested Greece should move to reform its economy before its European creditors give it a break on its debt.
In an interview, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde avoided any pointed criticism of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, but still hinted at frustrations as she said that Greece’s economy had been on the road to recovery before his SYRIZA party came to power.
Lagarde was asked which should come first, commitments to reform by Athens or relief on its debts from eurozone governments.
Photo: Reuters
“Given where we are, my suspicion is it would be much preferable to see a deliberate move towards reforms [and] for that to be followed through by the other side of the balance,” Lagarde said.
The Greek government had pushed for debt relief in months of negotiations with its European and IMF lenders on a cash-for-reform deal before Athens abruptly called a referendum.
A defiant Tsipras urged Greeks on Wednesday to reject an international bailout deal — which calls for even greater austerity measures — wrecking any prospect of repairing broken relations with EU partners before the referendum on Sunday that might decide Greece’s future in Europe.
“We do not have a choice as to who represents a country,” Lagarde said when asked about the trustworthiness of the Greeks. “And we take all governments, duly elected ... as the legitimate partner in the negotiations.”
Less than 24 hours before his combative address, Tsipras had written a conciliatory letter to creditors asking for a new bailout that would accept many of their terms.
Lagarde declined to comment on the latest offer from Athens or comment directly on whether she viewed Tsipras as a reliable negotiating partner, though she hinted at growing frustration with the Greek leader’s public negotiating stance.
“We have received so many ‘latest’ offers, which themselves have been validated, invalidated, changed, amended, over the course of the last few days, that it’s quite uncertain exactly where the latest proposal stands,” she said.
“I think there is a democratic process that is underway, and that should result in hopefully more clarity, less uncertainty as to what is the determination of the Greek people, and what is the authority of the government,” she said about Sunday’s referendum.
Long lines at cash machines this week provided a stark visual symbol of the pressure on Tsipras, who came to power in January vowing to end austerity and protect the poor.
Lagarde said Greece had made progress on many difficult reforms and had started to return to growth before SYRIZA came to power.
“What I find really concerning is the fact that after those years, as growth was beginning to pick up, as the country was beginning to generate a surplus, then suddenly there is this massive backtracking, which puts us backwards,” she said.
The IMF has been criticized for breaking its own rules in lending to Greece and endorsing austerity measures proposed by the European Commission and the European Central Bank, the IMF’s partners in the “troika” of Greece’s lenders.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts