International lenders have agreed fresh steps to reduce Greece’s debt pile further but it still has to fill a 10 billion euro (US$13 billion) gap to gain the International Monetary Fund’s approval for its next tranche of aid, a senior Greek government official said yesterday.
The IMF has agreed to deem the country’s debt viable if it falls to 124 percent of GDP in 2020, giving ground on its earlier target of 120 percent, the official said on condition of anonymity.
“The euro group has already agreed on measures to reduce Greek debt to 130 percent of GDP in 2020, so that leaves a gap of 5-6 percentage points of GDP to be covered — about 10 billion euros,” he said.
The official did not disclose what measures had been identified that would reduce the lenders estimate of public debt in 2020 from a previous 144 percent of GDP.
Another senior source involved in the negotiations confirmed that the IMF would now accept 124 percent as a target but said that to say the remaining gap only amounted to 10 billion euros was much too optimistic.
According to current government projections, Greek debt is seen at 340.6 billion euros, or 175.6 percent of GDP at the end of this year. It is expected to peak at 357.7 billion euros, almost 191 percent, in 2015.
Greece’s international lenders failed earlier this week to agree how to get the country’s debt down to a sustainable level and will have a third go at resolving their most intractable problem on Monday.
According to a document circulated at that meeting, Greece’s debt cannot be cut to 120 percent of GDP by 2020, unless eurozone member states write off a portion of their loans to Greece, which Germany has consistently said would be illegal.
Separately, Cyprus is close to agreeing a bailout package with the EU and IMF, Cypriot President Demetris Christofias said on Thursday after the latest round of talks with the international lenders.
Two EU sources said the agreement was nearly done but would be completed yesterday, when inspectors from the European Commission, European Central Bank and IMF — together known as the troika — were likely to give their approval.
The Commission, asked about reports that a deal had been agreed, said it would only issue a statement on Cyprus yesterday.
Cyprus sought financial aid — which could be up to 17.5 billion euros, equal to its entire GDP — from the EU and IMF in June, after its banks were battered by their exposure to the Greek crisis.
“After tough negotiations with the troika ... we are very close to signing a memorandum,” Christofias said in a statement. “Very few issues remain and it’s possible that the gaps in these issues will be bridged very soon.”
The troika team left Cyprus on Thursday. It said in a draft statement that it had made “good progress” and discussions aimed at “a potential program” would continue from their respective headquarters.
Ryanair, Transavia, Volotea and other low-cost airlines are feeling the financial pain from high jet fuel prices as a result of the Middle East war and are cutting flights. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has taken a huge chunk of oil supplies off the market, sending the price of jet fuel soaring and triggering fears of shortages that could force airlines to cancel flights. Airlines are not waiting for a lack of supplies to react. “Travel alert: Airlines are cutting thousands of flights right now,” Travel Therapy host Karen Schaler said in an Instagram reel this past weekend.
MANAGING RISKS: Taiwan has secured LNG sufficient to cover 95 percent of electricity demand for next month, UBS said, describing the government’s approach as proactive UBS Group AG has raised its forecast for Taiwan’s economic growth this year to 8 percent, up from 6.9 percent previously, and said expansion could reach as high as 8.6 percent if external energy shocks are avoided. The upgrade reflects a stronger-than-expected first-quarter performance and sustained momentum in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven exports, which UBS said are providing a firm foundation for growth despite geopolitical and energy risks. Taiwan’s GDP expanded 13.69 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, the fastest growth since the second quarter of 1987, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) reported on Thursday. On a seasonally
The Fair Trade Commission’s (FTC) ongoing review of Grab Holdings Ltd’s US$600 million acquisition of Foodpanda Taiwan’s operations, announced on March 23, has taken on fresh urgency as industry experts warn that the transaction could embed significant Chinese cybersecurity vulnerabilities into Taiwan’s digital infrastructure through Grab’s deep ties to autonomous-driving firm WeRide (文遠知行). Less than 16 months after the FTC blocked Uber Eats’ direct attempt to acquire Foodpanda Taiwan — citing potential combined market shares of 80 to 90 percent — the emergence of Grab as the buyer has prompted questions about whether the same competitive harm is simply being rerouted
The list of Asian stocks that benefit from business partnership with Nvidia Corp is getting longer, as the region further integrates into the artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant’s business ecosystem. Just in the past week, South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc, Taiwan’s Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), as well as China’s Huizhou Desay SV Automotive Co (德賽西威) and Pateo Connect Technology Shanghai Corp (博泰車聯) have become the latest to rally on news of tie-ups, supply-chain participation or product collaboration with the US chip designer. Asian suppliers account for about 90 percent of Nvidia’s production costs, up from about 65 percent last year, data compiled
RSS