The 16 eurozone finance ministers expect growth in the region to be “fragile” but positive this year, at about 1 percent, Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Monday.
“Growth is on the path of consolidation, but growth in 2010 will be fragile, moderate,” Luxembourg Prime Minister Juncker warned after chairing a meeting of the eurozone finance ministers in Brussels.
The assembled ministers estimated this year’s economic growth at “around one percent,” he said.
PHOTO: AFP
GDP in the bloc of 16 nations using the euro single currency fell by an unprecedented 4 percent over the whole of last year, an official EU estimate released on Friday said.
The return to growth has been faltering at best so far, with the eurozone posting 0.1 percent expansion in the fourth quarter, compared with 0.4 percent growth in the third quarter.
The ministers on Monday also picked Portugal’s Vitor Constancio for the key job of deputy head of the European Central Bank (ECB), Juncker announced.
Constancio, 66, will succeed Greece’s Lucas Papademos in May, in a decision seen as likely to leave the field open for Bundesbank chief Axel Weber to succeed Jean-Claude Trichet as ECB president in October next year.
Juncker said the Eurogroup was to “propose the candidature” yesterday.
Former socialist lawmaker and party leader Constancio has been governor of Portugal’s central bank since 2000 after a first stint at the helm between 1985 and 1986.
Convention dictates that a balance is found between northern and southern European countries when it comes to the allocation of prized top jobs in European institutions.
Germany, Europe’s biggest nation and most powerful economy, has been lobbying hard for Weber to take the reins after Trichet. Weber will be competing against Italian central bank chief Mario Draghi.
Constancio’s selection was due to be confirmed yesterday during a meeting of finance ministers from all 27 nations, although only the 16 that share the single currency are expected to vote.
Leaders will then formally announce his nomination during a summit next month.
Anna Bhobho, a 31-year-old housewife from rural Zimbabwe, was once a silent observer in her home, excluded from financial and family decisionmaking in the deeply patriarchal society. Today, she is a driver of change in her village, thanks to an electric tricycle she owns. In many parts of rural sub-Saharan Africa, women have long been excluded from mainstream economic activities such as operating public transportation. However, three-wheelers powered by green energy are reversing that trend, offering financial opportunities and a newfound sense of importance. “My husband now looks up to me to take care of a large chunk of expenses,
SECTOR LEADER: TSMC can increase capacity by as much as 20 percent or more in the advanced node part of the foundry market by 2030, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to lead its peers in the advanced 2-nanometer process technology, despite competition from Samsung Electronics Co and Intel Corp, TrendForce Corp analyst Joanne Chiao (喬安) said. TSMC’s sophisticated products and its large production scale are expected to allow the company to continue dominating the global 2-nanometer process market this year, Chiao said. The world’s largest contract chipmaker is scheduled to begin mass production of chips made on the 2-nanometer process in its Hsinchu fab in the second half of this year. It would also hold a ceremony on Monday next week to
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Nvidia is to open a quantum computing research lab in Boston, where it plans to collaborate with scientists from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said on Thursday. Huang made the announcement at Nvidia’s annual software developer conference in San Jose, California, where the company held a day of events focused on quantum computing. Nvidia added the program after Huang in January said that useful quantum computers are 20 years away, comments that he sought to walk back on Thursday while joined onstage by executives from quantum computing firms. “This is the first event in history
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