The European Central Bank (ECB) is considering several options including a floor for its benchmark interest rate to fight the recession, said Nout Wellink, a member of its governing council.
“That’s one of the possibilities,” Wellink, who is also head of the Dutch central bank, said in an interview late on Saturday in Washington. “When you have reached a certain level then you can influence reactions of economic agents by saying we will keep it at that level for a certain period.”
SPLIT
The ECB’s 22 council members appear split over how to counter the worst economic slump since World War II, at a time when the bank’s main rate is already at a record low of 1.25 percent. Germany’s Axel Weber has said the bank shouldn’t cut the rate below 1 percent. Others, including Athanasios Orphanides of Greece, want to keep open the option of deeper rate reductions and have argued in favor of asset purchases.
DELAYED DECISION
The debate prompted the Frankfurt-based ECB earlier this month to lower its key rate less than economists had forecast, by a quarter point, and to delay a decision on new policy tools until the council next meets on May 7.
The Federal Reserve and Bank of England have already cut lending rates close to zero and are buying government and corporate debt to bolster their economies.
The Bank of Canada this week cut its key rate to 0.25 percent and said it plans to leave it there for more than a year.
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
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Tsunami waves were possible in three areas of Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Services said yesterday after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the nearby Kuril Islands. “The expected wave heights are low, but you must still move away from the shore,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, after the latest seismic activity in the area. However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System in Hawaii said there was no tsunami warning after the quake. The Russian tsunami alert was later canceled. Overnight, the Krasheninnikov volcano in Kamchatka erupted for the first time in 600 years, Russia’s RIA
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