Uncertain prospects for a global economic recovery gripped talks between G8 finance ministers yesterday in Italy as rifts emerged on testing the stability of Europe’s crisis-hit banks.
“We shouldn’t get carried away with the recovery while we’re still relaunching, stimulating and ensuring that our recovery plans work,” French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde told reporters late on Friday at the talks.
“We must be very prudent because the shock was extremely brutal,” she said.
Germany’s Peer Steinbrueck said the meeting would struggle to find support for “exit strategies” — cuts in spending and deficits once growth restarts.
“The danger of short-term deflation is minor compared to the risk of long-term inflation,” Steinbrueck was quoted by the Financial Times as saying.
Lagarde also said European ministers would tell US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner that they are not yet ready to carry out US-style “stress tests” to check on the capital requirements of individual banks.
Britain has backed the tests and warned its recovery could be held back by other European countries failing to clean up their banks. But Germany has said the checks could undermine confidence in the stability of its banks.
“If there is a problem it doesn’t get any better by walking around it and hoping it will go away,” British Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling told the Financial Times ahead of the talks in Lecce in southern Italy.
“Because if you don’t sort that problem you’ll never sort out the economy,” he said.
Signs have emerged in recent weeks of a modest start to a recovery in countries such as Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the US.
That in turn has sparked debate over “exit strategies,” or how governments will rein in spending and cut massive debts incurred during the crisis.
Some have warned, however, that it may be too early to declare the worst over while output in many parts of the world continues to decline and unemployment soars.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
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