The majority of Germans think their country would be better off without the euro, a poll suggested yesterday, as the German economy minister reiterated doubts over whether Greece can stay in the single currency.
The Emnid poll for the Bild am Sonntag mass circulation weekly showed 51 percent of Germans believed Europe’s top economy would be better outside the 17-country eurozone. Twenty-nine percent said it would be worse off.
The survey also showed that 71 percent of Germans wanted Greece to leave the euro if it did not live up to its austerity promises.
Photo: Reuters
German Minister of Economics and Vice Chancellor Philipp Roesler told the Bild am Sonntag there were “considerable doubts whether Greece is living up to its reform promises.”
“The implementation [of the reforms] is faltering. There is still no functioning tax office. Also, almost nothing has happened in terms of the promised privatization of public assets,” Roesler told the paper. “If Greece does not fulfill its obligations, there can be no more money. Then Greece would be insolvent.”
Roesler and his party — junior partners in Germany’s ruling coalition — have frequently expressed doubts about whether Greece is prepared to follow through with the painful reforms necessary to stay in the single currency club.
Debt-wracked Greece is under immense pressure to carry out a structural reform program, part of a package worth billions of euros that have been keeping its economy alive since 2010.
International auditors are currently in Greece, assessing the Greek government’s progress toward reforms seen as essential to get the country back on its feet.
The audit report will determine whether Greece will receive the next tranche of 31.5 billion euros (US$38.8 billion) from its aid program that it needs to keep the economy afloat.
Meanwhile, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on Saturday threw cold water on speculation that the eurozone’s bailout fund will buy Spanish public debt.
Spanish and French media have suggested that the European Financial Stability Facility would start buying bonds issued by Italy and Spain in a coordinated action with the European Central Bank (ECB).
“No, these speculations are unfounded,” Schaeuble said in an interview with the German weekly Die Welt am Sonntag that was to appear on yesterday.
The ECB could resume its own purchases of sovereign bonds on secondary markets to ease pressure on borrowing costs for Rome and Madrid that have climbed to what many consider to be unsustainable levels.
Many economists have also begun to expect some kind of combined effort on the part of eurozone governments and the central bank, especially after ECB President Mario Draghi said on Thursday that the bank would “do whatever it takes to preserve the euro.”
Yet Madrid has rejected the notion of a financial rescue and ruled it out again on Friday.
“A bailout is not an option,” Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said.
The Spanish economic daily El Economista spoke on Wednesday of an overall plan worth 300 billion euros that would allow Spain to finance its public deficit for at least a year-and-a-half.
The eurozone has already approved up to 100 billion euros in aid for the Spanish banking sector.
Schaeuble told Die Welt am Sonntag that Spain “has taken all necessary decisions and is putting them into effect.”
The German finance minister said financial markets had not yet taken account of efforts made to resolve Spain’s banking sector crisis, but added: “That will come.”
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
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