Greece got a new finance minister on Wednesday, days after the crisis-hit country's interim prime minister Lucas Papademos said he was convinced Athens was "more than halfway along the path" to economic growth and recovery. Filippos Sachinidis was promoted from deputy minister after Evangelos Venizelos stepped down to take over the helm of the socialist Pasok party ahead of parliamentary elections which could come as early as next month. Sachinidis is a moderniser and former banker widely seen as a pair of safe hands as the debt-stricken nation navigates its worst crisis in modern times. His appointment was welcomed by both Pasok and the centre right New Democracy, the two parties power-sharing under Papademos, himself a former vice-president of the European Central Bank. The change of guard came as the country that triggered Europe's debt crisis in December 2009 raced against the clock to implement reforms demanded by the EU, ECB and International Monetary Fund in exchange for €130bn in extra aid to prop up its moribund economy. A first instalment of rescue funds worth €7.5bn was disbursed to Athens this week. Receipt of the money, which included €1.6bn from the IMF, followed this month's unexpectedly successful bond swap between Greece, banks and other private holders of its debt. A further €35bn is lined up to be injected into the country's cash-starved banking system – widely seen as a vital step to reinvigorate an economy mired in austerity-driven recession.
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Thursday, March 22, 2012
Greece got a new finance minister
Greece got a new finance minister on Wednesday, days after the crisis-hit country's interim prime minister Lucas Papademos said he was convinced Athens was "more than halfway along the path" to economic growth and recovery. Filippos Sachinidis was promoted from deputy minister after Evangelos Venizelos stepped down to take over the helm of the socialist Pasok party ahead of parliamentary elections which could come as early as next month. Sachinidis is a moderniser and former banker widely seen as a pair of safe hands as the debt-stricken nation navigates its worst crisis in modern times. His appointment was welcomed by both Pasok and the centre right New Democracy, the two parties power-sharing under Papademos, himself a former vice-president of the European Central Bank. The change of guard came as the country that triggered Europe's debt crisis in December 2009 raced against the clock to implement reforms demanded by the EU, ECB and International Monetary Fund in exchange for €130bn in extra aid to prop up its moribund economy. A first instalment of rescue funds worth €7.5bn was disbursed to Athens this week. Receipt of the money, which included €1.6bn from the IMF, followed this month's unexpectedly successful bond swap between Greece, banks and other private holders of its debt. A further €35bn is lined up to be injected into the country's cash-starved banking system – widely seen as a vital step to reinvigorate an economy mired in austerity-driven recession.
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Acknowledging anger in the US over Washington's role via the IMF in rescuing debt-stricken countries such as Greece, Geithner said: "Europe is a very rich continent that has the means to solve this on their own. The IMF is an institution where members have a right to request assistance. Our judgment has been that it has been in the interest of the US for the IMF to play a modest supplemental role alongside Europe."
But he added: "We are not going to do it in a way that shifts the burden of resolving their crisis to the US taxpayer."
The Nigerian finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and former Colombian finance minister, Jose Antonio Ocampo, are reportedly being put forward to replace Robert Zoellick who is retiring.
Ever since the World Bank was established at the Bretton Woods conference after the Second World War, an American has always led it. The understanding also upholds the traditional that a European always heads the International Monetary Fund, created in the wake of the same conference.
Leaders of developing economies have called for a break in the tradition but have so far failed to get enough support from other countries.
Sources told Reuters that Mr Okonjo-Iweala and Mr Ocampo have gathered support from key countries such as South Africa and Brazil.
Mr Okonjo-Iweala was managing director of the World Bank until last year when he left to become Nigeria's finance minister. Mr Ocampo was the former under-secretary for economic and social affairs at the United Nations (UN).
Now I have a special deal for you. If you just give me the account details I will arrange for a billion dollars to be paid in. For the privilege of using your account I will grant you 78% of the deposit.
The money is currently in a secret account -so secret that no one knows about it - except me and now you. It used to belong to my father who was an enemy of the Nigerian government...........
You've GOT to be joking!
NEW YORK—U.S. money-market funds sharply increased the amount of euro-zone bank debt they held last month, according to Fitch Ratings, a sign they believe the worst of the region's debt troubles are over.
These funds owned 21% more debt from French, German and other euro-zone banks at the end of February compared with a month earlier, the steepest gain since at least 2009.
Euro-zone bank debt made up 13.4% of $664 billion in assets held by the surveyed funds, up from about 10% at the end of 2010
The FTSE 100 is forecast to open down 5-7 points or 0.1pc lower this morning. More later on markets live.
Japan: The Nikkei 225 closed up 40.59 at 10,127
US : In New York, stock markets weakened following disappointing figures from the US housing market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
slipped 0.4pc to 13,124.60, while the S&P 500 dropped 0.2pc to 1,402.89.
UK: The FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 marked time yesterday as the Budget failed to produce much that surprised or worried London traders. The FTSE 100 edged up 0.54 points to 5,891.95 while the FTSE 250 ticked up 23.51 points to 11,656.75.
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