US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stressed the need for the G7 countries to “go big” with fiscal stimulus to support economic recovery from the global pandemic.
In her first call with foreign counterparts and central bankers from the G7, Yellen said that “the time to go big is now” and that the group should focus on how to help the economy, the US Treasury Department said in a statement after the virtual meeting held on Friday.
The online gathering of finance chiefs from the world’s top industrial economies addressed a proposed expansion in the IMF’s lending firepower along with digital taxation and climate change.
Photo: AP
The US is leaning toward backing an increase in the IMF’s special drawing rights, or SDRs, by as much as US$500 billion, Bloomberg News reported earlier this month. The fund has been lobbying for more help to support developing nations against the COVID-19 crisis.
The G7 discussed increasing the IMF’s resources during Friday’s call, and the group expects a decision to be announced later this month on the back of a G20 discussion, according to one person familiar with the matter. The finance ministers’ goal in Friday’s talks was to build momentum around helping developing nations, the person said on the condition of anonymity.
UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, who hosted the virtual meeting, also stressed the importance of the G7 “shaping support for vulnerable countries,” according to a statement from his office.
The US has a de facto veto in the IMF on the decision, and former US Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin had previously blocked the fund’s requests to boost its special drawing rights.
Yellen highlighted in the call that there is a new tone out of Washington. The US “places a high priority on deepening our international engagement and strengthening our alliances,” she said, according to the Treasury’s statement.
On fiscal policy, the US is among the most aggressive, with the Biden administration pursuing a US$1.9 trillion package in Congress. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the world’s biggest economies must coordinate stimulus plans and policies in an effort to reduce key risks including trade tensions and inequality.
The finance chiefs also discussed the continuing effort to find international consensus on taxing Internet giants such as Facebook Inc.
Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso told reporters that given how Friday’s talks went there’s an increasing possibility of a compromise on the international taxation issue. US and European officials have shifted their positions in recent months, he said. Aso said he previously thought that getting a conclusion by mid-2021 was almost impossible.
The group will hold another meeting next month, Aso said.
Biden “believes the largest corporations should pay their fair share in taxes,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday at a briefing. She said Biden is “committed” to reaching a multilateral agreement.
The UK underlined its commitment to progress on the tax challenges of the digital economy, and called on the G7 to work toward reaching an enduring multilateral solution by the deadline of the middle of this year agreed by the G20, the UK Treasury said.
Talks on digital taxation have been held under the rubric of the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
“We have to come to an agreement this summer,” on the matter, Le Maire said, according to the French finance ministry.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day