Russia is offering Cyprus cheaper bail-out loans than the EU and IMF, president Demetris Christofias said on Wednesday, as the country seeks aid to shore up its ailing banks...."The conditions offered by Russia are more favourable" because it does not "impose any conditions" and offers "a lower interest rate," Mr Christofias told the European Parliament.
Aid from the EU and International Monetary Fund comes with strict conditions on economic policy as has been the case in Greece, Ireland and Portugal which have all needed bail-outs, while Spain is seeking help for its banks.
Experts from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF arrived in Cyprus on Tuesday to look into its request for financial aid.
The government has not said how much it is seeking but reports suggest it may need around €10bn ($12.5bn).
Sources told AFP that Cyprus has also been conducting negotiations in parallel with Russia, from which it secured a low-interest €2.5bn-euro loan last year to cover refinancing needs for 2012....Why should Russia take an interest in Cyprus? This seems a bit odd to me.
Anyway, can't we just give Cyprus their own printing machine and save the bother of having to send the money to them in the post?
Anyway, can't we just give Cyprus their own printing machine and save the bother of having to send the money to them in the post?
6 comments:
Everything stands and falls with Germany. That won't change just because France decided to join the club of irresponsible southern European debt junkies.
I find it hilarious how the definition of "feckless southern European" keeps changing depending on who is doing what Merkel tells them to do at any given time. France used to be one of the "resposible" strong countries until French people voted for someone who dared to have his own opinions, and now they're added to the list of "southern Europeans".
Stop it, your killing me.
Rhine-Westphalia.
A bunch of lazy feckless emotional olive munchers, those North Rhine Westphalians.
And by the way, I have a new addition to the list of feckless southern Europeans, one you may have missed. Earlier in the summer the electorate of a state voted to reject Merkel's austerity programme and extend the repayment period for their huge state deficit. That was the outcome of regional elections in the largest German federal state of North
Mircea Halaciuga, Esq.
004.0724.58.1078
PROXEMIS - Managementul Riscurilor
Speaking in Japan ahead of talks with prime minister Yoshihiko Noda, the managing director of the IMF said a cooperative policy response is now needed more than ever.
"Over the past few months, the outlook has, regrettably, become more worrisome," Ms Lagarde said. "This is a global crisis. In today's interconnected world, we can no longer afford to look only at what goes on within our national borders. This crisis does not recognize borders."
Japan and the Asian region have coped with the crisis well so far, contributing more than half of total global growth since 2008. However, "this does not mean that Asia is immune. The spillovers from Europe are increasingly visible here," Ms Lagarde said.
The fund's next growth forecasts, published on July 16, are likely to be lower than the fund's previous forecasts, she added.
The IMF chief said that while developments in Europe remain the most pressing risk for the global economy, she was encouraged by last month's EU summit in Brussels, where "European leaders agreed to significant steps in the right direction to address the immediate crisis".
The economists, who included Hans-Werner Sinn, head of Ifo, the influential think tank, argued that the German chancellor had taken a dangerous step towards a "banking union".
The agreement by leaders at the last summit to allow the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to fund struggling banks directly – rather than via governments – was seen as a key advance.
Spanish banks, which have dragged the eurozone's fourth -biggest economy to the brink, are expected to tap the bail-out funds for as much as €100bn.
But in the letter, published by the German daily, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the economists said: "Banks' debts are nearly three times higher than government debts . . . the taxpayers, retirees and savers in the so-far solid countries of Europe must not be made liable for backing these debts, particularly since gigantic losses are foreseeable from financing the southern countries' inflationary economic bubbles."
They added that they viewed the "step toward a banking union, which means collective liability for the debts of the banks of the eurosystem, with great concern".
Mrs Merkel dismissed the economists' concerns. "First of all, this is about better banking supervision, and one can only say that that is urgently necessary," she told reporters. "This is absolutely not about any additional liability."
Portugal's Constitutional Court has struck down a key part of the government's deficit-cutting programme.
It ruled that the government's plan to limit extra holiday and Christmas pay for public sector workers was unconstitutional.
Currently, nearly all public and private sector employees receive an extra month's salary before the summer holidays and Christmas.
The government wanted to cut this to meet targets for a eurozone bailout.
Portugal needs to cut some 1.2bn euros (£900.5m) off its budget deficit by next year as part of a bailout deal from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.
It had planned to cut extra holiday payments for public sector workers and pensioners, or scrap them entirely for wealthier people.
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