Italy’s borrowing rates spiked yesterday to their highest level since the euro was established in 1999 ahead of a budget vote in the Italian parliament that could ratchet up the pressure on Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi to resign.
The markets have turned their attention this week from the political crisis in Greece — where the two main parties were locked in talks yesterday to forge a national unity government — to Rome.
Berlusconi’s government is under intense pressure to enact quick reforms to shore up Italy’s defenses against Europe’s raging debt crisis. However, a weak coalition and doubts over Berlusconi’s ability to push through austerity reforms have heightened the unease in financial markets that Italy could need financial aid.
What happens in Italy is a particular worry as it is the eurozone’s third-largest economy. With debts of about 1.9 trillion euros (US$2.6 trillion), Italy’s debts are considered by many in the markets as being too big for Europe to bail out.
Higher rates would make it more difficult for Italy to rollover its debts and will mean they consume more national income. Italy has more than 300 billion euros to raise next year alone.
By late-morning trading, the yield on Italy’s 10-year bonds was up 0.07 percentage point at 6.60 percent, down from an earlier high of 6.74 percent. A rate of more than 7 percent is considered unsustainable and proved to be the trigger point that forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal into accepting the need for financial bailouts.
The parliamentary vote was on a knife-edge, with Berlusconi’s coalition showing signs of fracture. Italian news agency ANSA reported that Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti hurriedly departed from a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels to return to Rome.
The Chamber of Deputies vote, on a routine measure, is not a confidence vote — whose loss would require Berlusconi to resign. However, a loss would send a message that Berlusconi is in trouble.
In less tense times, the vote would have meant routine approval of last year’s state accounts, but -instead it has become a crucial test of Berlusconi’s survival as head of his three-and-a-half-year-old -center-right government. Last month, the vote of the same measure failed by one vote. Chamber whips were meeting a few hours before the vote to map out a strategy for the vote, which was set to take place yesterday afternoon.
Opposition forces were considering boycotting the vote so the numbers would more clearly show just how many deputies still support the government. If Berlusconi’s forces number less than 316 deputies — or one more than half the number of the 630--member chamber, it would be plain that the media mogul no longer can count on a majority in the lower house of Parliament.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS