Greece is committed to reforms that are vital if it is to avert bankruptcy, Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said in remarks published yesterday, warning the next few weeks were crucial for its future in the euro.
The comments by Stournaras came ahead of a meeting yesterday with officials from the troika of international creditors — the EU, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the IMF — on budget cuts needed to unlock the next tranche of aid under a massive bailout package.
“The country is committed to implementing a series of measures and reforms to revive the economy and permanently remove the threat of bankruptcy,” Stournaras told the Ethnos newspaper.
He acknowledged that Greeks have had to endure “major sacrifices” as the new coalition government imposes tough austerity measures, including salary and pension cuts, demanded by its creditors in return for aid.
“The coming weeks are crucial for the country’s survival because if we go down a different path than logic tells us, it could drive us outside the eurozone and into bankruptcy,” he added.
The troika is seeking budget cuts of another 11.5 billion euros (US$14 billion) to unlock a 31.5 billion euro loan disbursement next month as part of Greece’s latest 130 billion euro rescue package.
The cuts, applicable next year and in 2014, were originally to have been finalized last month, but back-to-back elections postponed the decision.
Stournaras said he hoped that Greece could emerge from its deep recession by speeding up a privatization program and structural reforms which are also being sought by its international creditors.
Greece was given a lifeline last week when the ECB agreed on a move which will give Athens access to another 4 billion euros of funds and ensure its financial survival until next month, a German newspaper reported on Saturday.
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (better known as Foxconn) ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose 60 places to reach No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc. at 348th, Pegatron Corp. at 461st, CPC Corp., Taiwan at 494th and Wistron Corp. at 496th. According to Fortune, the world’s
NEW PRODUCTS: MediaTek plans to roll out new products this quarter, including a flagship mobile phone chip and a GB10 chip that it is codeveloping with Nvidia Corp MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday projected that revenue this quarter would dip by 7 to 13 percent to between NT$130.1 billion and NT$140 billion (US$4.38 billion and US$4.71 billion), compared with NT$150.37 billion last quarter, which it attributed to subdued front-loading demand and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. The Hsinchu-based chip designer said that the forecast factored in the negative effects of an estimated 6 percent appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the greenback. “As some demand has been pulled into the first half of the year and resulted in a different quarterly pattern, we expect the third quarter revenue to decline sequentially,”
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
DIVERSIFYING: Taiwanese investors are reassessing their preference for US dollar assets and moving toward Europe amid a global shift away from the greenback Taiwanese investors are reassessing their long-held preference for US-dollar assets, shifting their bets to Europe in the latest move by global investors away from the greenback. Taiwanese funds holding European assets have seen an influx of investments recently, pushing their combined value to NT$13.7 billion (US$461 million) as of the end of last month, the highest since 2019, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Over the first half of this year, Taiwanese investors have also poured NT$14.1 billion into Europe-focused funds based overseas, bringing total assets up to NT$134.8 billion, according to data from the Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Association (SITCA),
RSS