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.
TYPHOON: The storm’s path indicates a high possibility of Krathon making landfall in Pingtung County, depending on when the storm turns north, the CWA said Typhoon Krathon is strengthening and is more likely to make landfall in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said in a forecast released yesterday afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the CWA’s updated sea warning for Krathon showed that the storm was about 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point. It was moving in west-northwest at 9kph, with maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts of up to 155kph, CWA data showed. Krathon is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said. The CWA’s latest forecast and other countries’ projections of the storm’s path indicate a higher
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
TYPHOON DAY: Taitung, Pingtung, Tainan, Chiayi, Hualien and Kaohsiung canceled work and classes today. The storm is to start moving north this afternoon The outer rim of Typhoon Krathon made landfall in Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) at about noon yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, adding that the eye of the storm was expected to hit land tomorrow. The CWA at 2:30pm yesterday issued a land alert for Krathon after issuing a sea alert on Sunday. It also expanded the scope of the sea alert to include waters north of Taiwan Strait, in addition to its south, from the Bashi Channel to the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). As of 6pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 160km south of
STILL DANGEROUS: The typhoon was expected to weaken, but it would still maintain its structure, with high winds and heavy rain, the weather agency said One person had died amid heavy winds and rain brought by Typhoon Krathon, while 70 were injured and two people were unaccounted for, the Central Emergency Operation Center said yesterday, while work and classes have been canceled nationwide today for the second day. The Hualien County Fire Department said that a man in his 70s had fallen to his death at about 11am on Tuesday while trimming a tree at his home in Shoufeng Township (壽豐). Meanwhile, the Yunlin County Fire Department received a report of a person falling into the sea at about 1pm on Tuesday, but had to suspend search-and-rescue
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