The IMF said on Monday that the timing of economic recovery in the 16 nations that share the euro was “uncertain.”
It said any recovery would be slow and called on European governments to stress test banks and launch a “resolute and coordinated cleanup of the banking system” to restore confidence.
The euro zone fell into recession last year and is now seeing unemployment surge to the highest level in more than a decade as households cut back spending and demand for high-value European exports plunges, partly on the high value of the euro against other currencies.
The IMF called on the European Central Bank to keep considering unconventional options, “including active credit easing” or printing more money to stimulate growth.
It said the ECB should also explore any margin for cutting interest rates under 1 percent level “as soon as possible.”
But it warned that reducing rates under the current level — the lowest ever for the euro area — needed to be judged against possible adverse effects on money markets. Lower rates could see investors pull money out of the euro area to get a higher return elsewhere.
In a report to euro zone finance ministers at a regular monthly meeting, the IMF warned that Europe “can hardly afford a piecemeal approach” to cleaning up the battered banking system after dozens of banks sought state bailouts to avert collapse late last year.
The IMF said the EU needed a proactive strategy to deal with the weakened financial system to review how much capital banks needed to put aside to cover the risk of more loan defaults, to purge problem assets such as securities from banks’ balance sheets and to restructure banks.
It said governments and banks needed more certainty on bank rescues, saying nations should have the option of taking control of financial institutions at an early stage without shareholder or creditor approval.
Instead, such rescues should be “subject to ex post judicial review,” it said.
This appears to target the messy government bailout and carve up of Dutch-Belgian bank Fortis was held up when shareholders won a court challenge that they should have been consulted when the Dutch, Belgian and Luxembourg governments swooped in to rescue the bank in September and October.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary