IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said it was too early for policymakers to withdraw stimulus that’s driving the global recovery.
“The global economy is recovering, even if its recovery is fragile,” Strauss-Kahn said in a speech at Tokyo University in Japan’s capital yesterday.
A plan to withdraw emergency measures “should be designed today” yet not “implemented” because world economies are still dependent on government support and private demand remains weak, he said.
Strauss-Kahn had said earlier this month that the world’s economic recovery is occurring “sooner and stronger” than anticipated. More than US$2 trillion in government spending around the world has spurred growth, pulling economies out of a recession spurred by a meltdown in the US housing market.
Government measures “should be focused more on what is likely to fight unemployment,” he said yesterday.
Strauss-Kahn said countries haven’t done enough to tighten regulation in the wake of the global financial crisis.
“The root of the crisis” was “a failing of regulation and supervision of the financial sector in the US,” he said. “A lot has already been done, but it’s not enough.”
He urged nations to consider having companies in the financial sector help solve the problems they created.
US President Barack Obama’s proposed levy on the country’s banks is “very welcome” and “a good idea,” Strauss-Kahn said.
Obama is proposing a tax on the country’s biggest financial firms to get back taxpayer money that bailed out those companies during the worst recession since the 1930s. The fee would apply to financial companies with assets of more than US$50 billion such as Citigroup Inc, American International Group Inc and Bank of America Corp.
Non-financial companies that also got bail-out aid including General Motors Co and Chrysler Group LLC would be exempt from the levy.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
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