European Central Bank (ECB) President Jean-Claude Trichet will cut short a trip to Australia to attend a special EU summit as concerns heighten over a debt crisis in the bloc.
EU leaders are due to meet tomorrow in Brussels for a special summit on the economy under pressure to restore confidence among investors worried that rising debt in Greece, Portugal and other weaker states in the euro zone could undermine the global recovery.
The summit was called in early January and Trichet had been expected to spend both today and tomorrow in Australia at central bank meetings. Instead, he is leaving early, officials at the Reserve Bank of Australia and the ECB said.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
“There is a possibility that the EU could get the ECB involved and support Greece,” said Ayako Sera, market strategist at Sumitomo Trust Bank. “Fiscal concerns that have also spread to Spain and Portugal could temporarily ease if we get something on Greece.”
The euro inched up on news of Trichet’s changed travel plans, although it remains marred near a nine-month low of US$1.3583 hit on Friday.
It has fallen more than 6 percent since mid-December when ratings agencies first downgraded Greece.
Investors have shifted funds out of riskier assets into so-called safe havens, including the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc. Yields on Greek, Portuguese and Spanish debt and the cost of insuring against default have risen sharply.
The EU usually holds four summits a year, when all 27 heads of state or government gather in Brussels. The first summit, scheduled for March, normally focuses on economic issues.
But EU President Herman Van Rompuy, who can convene a special summit at any time if there are pressing issues, called for the meeting saying the bloc needed more economic growth in order to finance its social model on a sound basis.
Eurozone finance ministers, facing the bloc’s first debt crisis in the 11-year-old currency union, tried to calm investor fears over the risk of sovereign default in peripheral states at a G7 meeting in Canada over the weekend.
They said they would ensure Greece kept to a plan to cut its budget deficit to below 3 percent by 2012 from 12.7 percent last year, the euro zone’s biggest gap.
Trichet, who attended the G7 meeting, expressed confidence in the Greek plan. But the G7 comments did little to lift investor appetite for risk.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed on Monday below 10,000 points for the first time since November, weighed down by the euro debt woes.
The MSCI index of Asian shares outside Japan slid to a five-month low yesterday.
“Sentiment is still weak amid deepening concerns about southern European nations’ sovereign rating risks,” said Juhn Jong-kyu, a market analyst at Samsung Securities in Seoul.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
WARNING: From Jan. 1 last year to the end of last month, 89 Taiwanese have gone missing or been detained in China, the MAC said, urging people to carefully consider travel to China Lax enforcement had made virtually moot regulations banning civil servants from making unauthorized visits to China, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Several agencies allowed personnel to travel to China after they submitted explanations for the trip written using artificial intelligence or provided no reason at all, the Control Yuan said in a statement, following an investigation headed by Control Yuan member Lin Wen-cheng (林文程). The probe identified 318 civil servants who traveled to China without permission in the past 10 years, but the true number could be close to 1,000, the Control Yuan said. The public employees investigated were not engaged in national
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
RSS