Development groups have called on western governments to use $2.6bn (£1.6bn) from the sale of International Monetary Fund gold to finance a new wave of debt relief for the world's poorest nations. The IMF's board will meet in Washington on Wednesday to discuss what it should do with the profits raised from disposing of just over 400 metric tonnes of gold, one eighth of the IMF's total stock of the precious metal. When it announced the sell-off in September 2009, the IMF said the move was an important step in putting its finances on a "sound long-term footing". It added that important components of the strategy would be the creation of an endowment and a boost to concessional lending to developing nations. Tim Jones, policy officer at the Jubilee Debt Campaign, urged the big western shareholders that dominate decision-making at the IMF to use the money for debt relief. "The IMF is doing very well out of the economic crisis it helped to create, with a windfall from gold sales and profit from lending," Jones said. "Yet, many poor countries have been forced into debt through no fault of their own, whether due to disasters or the financial crisis caused by western banks. The IMF should use its excess money to cancel such debts."He said a total of 58 civil society organisations and networks from across the world have written to the governments that control the IMF, calling on them to use the windfall to cancel poor countries' debts. Signatories include Oxfam International, the International Trade Union Confederation, Action Aid International, Cafod, Save the Children and the World Development Movement.

A decision of the National Bank of Romania to cut the minimum foreign reserve requirements ratio on foreign currency-denominated liabilities from 25% to 20%, thereby releasing over one billion euros to the private sector banks suprized all. This is a signal encouraging lending and indirectly the economy. Foreign currency-denominated loans are seen as an alternative to support investments and real estate acquisitions. "We see the NBR's decision as an attempt to prop up economic growth amid inflationary pressures limiting the possibility of cutting the key interest rate," comments Eugen Sinca, analyst with the BCR. The NBR has kept its key interest rate at 6.25% a year, which has remained unchanged since May last year. Florian Libocor, chief economist of the BRD, believes the central bank is trying to send a positive message to the private economy. Volksbank believes that the banks will be stimulated this way, to become more aggressive when it comes to lending and will lower their interest rates. Another possible interpretation would be that the NBR is paving the way to a new foreign-currency bond issue by the Romanian Ministry of Finance, as it did in 2009.

A rise in eurozone interest rates next week would damage Spain's recovery and hurt many small businesses and homeowners who are struggling to repay loans, according to Andreu Mas-Colell, the Catalonian regional government's economy minister. The impact of a rate rise would add to a series of shocks that have knocked a hole in the country's annual income and restricted its ability to recover from the financial crisis, he said.

The European Central Bank is considered to be close to pushing up eurozone interest rates from the current 1% following a sharp jump in inflation. ECB boss Jean-Claude Trichet has given strong hints that he has no option but to support higher interest rates to reduce the pressure on prices at the forthcoming meeting on 7 April. Mas-Colell, an internationally recognised economist who was recruited last year by Catalonia's new centre-right administration, said he had warned some time ago that a two-speed recovery in Europe would leave countries such as Spain facing higher interest rates before their recovery was entrenched. "I said two years ago that the disaster ahead would be for the rest of Europe to recover before us and for there to be a rise in interest rates," he said. Mas-Colell's argument, like those of opposition politicians in the UK, is that moves to reform the public finances and overhaul banking sector rules are going too fast.

Spain is under pressure from international investors to show how it will grow over the next few years to escape the threat of bankruptcy.

With Portugal considered to be only weeks away from seeking an bailout from fellow members of the European Union, there is mounting concern that Spain will struggle to meet EU demands for cuts in public spending while at the same time expanding economic growth. Catalonia has traditionally been regarded as an engine of growth for the Spanish economy, but like Spain's other 17 regions it has struggled to make headway in the aftermath of the global banking crisis. Mas-Colell, who spent several years in the US as a professor at Berkeley and Harvard, said the Basel banking reforms, which insist that banks hold more capital, had prevented Spain's good banks from making loans to small and medium-sized companies. Coupled with a reduction in public spending and a collapse in private consumption, he said, a rise in interest rates would be a negative step.

"For us it would be better if the eurozone's monetary and fiscal policies were more like America and Europe was not so dominated by demands for tighter monetary policy, fiscal austerity and financial reform," he said. Mas-Colell, who was recruited from a position in Brussels where he oversaw EU-funded research and development, argued that when the government is spending 3% of GDP on unemployment benefit and cutting 6% of GDP under EU-inspired austerity measures, the "best thing would be to put people to work". But a rise in interest rates will raise the cost of credit and hinder the ability of companies to generate jobs.

The radioactive core in a reactor at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant appears to have melted through the bottom of its containment vessel and on to a concrete floor, experts say, raising fears of a major release of radiation at the site. The warning follows an analysis by a leading US expert of radiation levels at the plant. Readings from reactor two at the site have been made public by the Japanese authorities and Tepco, the utility that operates it. Richard Lahey, who was head of safety research for boiling-water reactors at General Electric when the company installed the units at Fukushima, told the Guardian workers at the site appeared to have "lost the race" to save the reactor, but said there was no danger of a Chernobyl-style catastrophe. Workers have been pumping water into three reactors at the stricken plant in a desperate bid to keep the fuel rods from melting down, but the fuel is at least partially exposed in all the reactors. At least part of the molten core, which includes melted fuel rods and zirconium alloy cladding, seemed to have sunk through the steel "lower head" of the pressure vessel around reactor two, Lahey said.

Romania's international foreign currency reserves do not necessarily need to grow as they stand at a comfortable level, according to the governor of Romania's Central Bank (BNR), Mugur Isarescu. He mentioned we have to give up the idea that it is a good thing if the international reserve is growing, NewsIn states. As to the gold reserves of the neighbor countries, he said the central lender of Bulgaria has a reserve of 39.8 tons, that from Latvia 7.8 tons, that from Lithuania 5.9 tons, that from Poland 103 tons and that from Slovakia 31.7 tons. Romania's gold reserve stands at 103.7 tons. The governor also talked about the gain from administering the international reserves, which dropped dramatically from 2008 and 2009 and even more in 2010. The price of gold rose 2.5 times in the past five years. Romania's foreign currency reserves lowered by 1.13 percent in June from the previous month, to 31.62 billion euros, according to a release issued by the central lender BNR. Romania's international reserves – foreign currency and gold – eased 0.7 percent at the end of June to 34.99 billion euros, from 35.25 billion euros at the end of May. The gold reserve maintained at 103.7 tons, but the evolution of international prices increased its value by 3.37 percent to 3.37 billion euros, from 3.26 billion euros in the previous month.

Austrian group OMV, which holds 51% in Petrom, will collect around 510 million lei (124 million euros). Since 2004, when they took over control of the company, the Austrians have collected close to 500 million euros in dividends. OMV paid 669 million euros to the Romanian state for 33% in Petrom and boosted its stake to 51% after an around 830 million-euro capital increase. The Economy Ministry, which holds 30.6% in Petrom, will collect over 50 million lei in dividends, as will Fondul Proprietatea (Property Fund - FP), which has 20.1% in the company. The state intends to sell a 9.64% stake in Petrom worth 550 million lei on the Stock Exchange by mid-year, currently being in the process of selecting the broker. Petrom last year posted a record-high net profit of 2.2 billion lei (516 million euros), according to international financial reporting standards (IFRS), 156% more than in 2009, while its business climbed 16%, to 18.6 billion lei (4.37 billion euros). The value of the gross dividends proposed by Petrom to the shareholders is 0.0177 lei/share, accounting for 4.2% (yield) of the share price. Petrom shares gained 23% since the beginning of the year, ending yesterday at the price of 0.42 lei. The company's capitalisation is 5.75 billion euros. (ZF)

Petrom, the only Romanian producer of oil and gas, is the company on whose exploration and production budgets depends the business of many companies that deliver equipment and services for the industry. "The events in Libya shaved 10% off OMV's hydrocarbon production base just like that. Under the circumstances, it is to be expected that the group will invest more in exploration and production in the regions where it has such activities, which include Romania, in order to cover this deficit somehow. The big money is made from exploration and production, not from refining," says Peter Grobmueller, CEO of the division oil and gas within Siemens. The German group has several contracts with Petrom, with one contract involving maintenance work within Petrobrazi refinery, the only facility of the two held by the oil and gas producer to still be working. (source Z.F.)

Romanians increased their bank deposits by one billion lei in February alone, which shows they still prefer to postpone acquisition plans and save the money instead.

Therefore individuals' deposits at the end of February exceeded 105 billion lei, 24 billion lei (almost 6 billion euros) more than in October 2008, when the global financial crunch effects reached Romania, as well. "The crisis has a number of effects. Even though it may appear counterintuitive, as incomes went down, deposits went up. The consumer spending behaviour adjusted, the appetite for borrowing was affected but savings were stimulated," says Ionuţ Dumitru, Raiffeisen Bank's chief economist. Fear of income decline or of even losing their jobs has made many people drop plans for holidays abroad or for buying a new TV and save the money instead. Spending adjustment showed in consumer spending, with the business of the home appliances retailers and car dealers plummeting.BCE, Citigroup, Agerpres Mediafax,

After 20 years of being an active politician, Adrian Severin could be forced to put an end to a career, which has been a blend of controversial moves and competent public appearances that created for him the image of a clever politician, an ideologist with a leftist leaning, but especially one who embraced European values. Having entered the political scene immediately after 1990, when he was 36, and first becoming part of the government as a secretary of state in Petre Roman's government, in the team of young promising professors promoted by the premier at the time, Severin's crowning political achievement in Romania was when he became foreign minister in 1996. He later received European recognition when he was elected as European deputy, as well as by his appointment in 2002 to the Convention on the Future of Europe, which put together the European Constitution (the current Lisbon Treaty). The scandal started by The Sunday Times, which accuses him, as well as two other European MPs, of claiming money to modify European legislation, could be fatal to the now 57 year-old politician. He has been summoned to Brussels for explanations, the Romanian National Anticorruption Department (DNA) started an investigation on its own initiative, and the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) is examining the pieces of evidence generously made available by the British publication.

While the world has been transfixed with Japan, Europe has been struggling to avoid another financial crisis. On any Richter scale of economic threats, this may ultimately matter more than Japan’s grim tragedy. One reason is size. Europe represents about 20 percent of the world economy; Japan’s share is about 6 percent. Another is that Japan may recover faster than is now imagined; that happened after the 1995 Kobe earthquake. It’s hard to discuss the “world economic crisis” in the past tense as long as Europe’s debt problem festers — and it does. Just last week, European leaders were putting the finishing touches on a plan to enlarge a bailout fund from an effective size of roughly 250 billion euros (about $350 billion) to 440 billion euros ($615 billion) and eventually to 500 billion euros ($700 billion). By lending to stricken debtor nations, the fund would aim to prevent them from defaulting on their government bonds, which could have ruinous repercussions. Banks could suffer huge losses in their bond portfolios; investors could panic and dump all European bonds; Europe and the world could relapse into recession. Unfortunately, the odds of success are no better than 50-50. Europe must do something. Greece and Ireland are already in receivership. Private investors won’t buy their bonds at reasonable rates. There are worries about Portugal and Spain; Moody’s recently downgraded both, though Spain’s rating is still high. The trouble is that the sponsors of the bailout fund are themselves big debtors. In 2010, Italy’s debt burden (the ratio of its government debt to its economy, or gross domestic product) was 131 percent, reports the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; that exceeded Spain’s debt ratio of 72 percent. Debt ratios were high even for France (92 percent) and Germany (80 percent).

La France veut écarter l'Alliance au profit d'un système de commandement multinational. De son côté, Londres insiste pour que l'Otan joue un rôle majeur dans l'intervention. La pression militaire est à son comble en Méditerranée. La coalition menée par la France, la Grande-Bretagne et les États-Unis peau finait vendredi une dernière touche au dispositif militaire destiné à lancer des frappes ciblées contre le régime du colonel Kadhafi. «Tout est prêt» pour une action militaire, a confirmé vendredi le ministre des Affaires étrangères, Alain Juppé. Comme en 1956, lorsque la Grande-Bretagne et la France avaient lancé une opération militaire commune après la nationalisation du canal de Suez par l'Égypte, Paris et Londres sont aux avant-postes de l'intervention. Mais, selon les informations obtenues par Le Figaro, la question de la coordination de l'opération aérienne n'était pas encore réglée vendredi. Londres insiste pour que l'Otan joue un rôle majeur dans l'intervention, les Français veulent écarter l'Alliance au profit d'un système de commandement multinational, estimant qu'elle n'est pas l'organisation la plus adéquate pour ouvrir un nouveau front dans le monde arabe. En position d'attente, l'Otan se contente pour l'instant de «planifier». Mais l'Alliance atlantique serait prête à «combler le vide» si Français et Britanniques ne réussissaient pas rapidement à se mettre d'accord.

There are fears that a mass repatriation of the Japanese yen could destablise the global economy. The world's richest nations have rallied behind Japan in a bid to calm markets over the devastating earthquake and its aftermath. The G7 group, whose members include the United States and the UK, joined the Bank of Japan in stepping into the currency markets to curb the soaring yen. Recognising the damage that a rising national currency could do to an export-dependent economy, the Bank of England, Germany's Bundesbank, the Bank of France and the European Central Bank joined the BoJ on Friday morning in the first co-ordinated intervention by the G7 since the launch of the euro a decade ago. The US Federal Reserve is also expected to participate. The Japanese authorities blamed speculators for the dramatic surge in the yen since the earthquake struck a week ago. Dubbing them "sneaky thieves", Japanese deputy finance minister Fumihiko Igarashi said in an interview with Reuters: "G7 countries agreed that if we caved in to such speculators that took advantage of people's misfortunes, the Japanese economy would be ruined and the whole world economy would be harmed.

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave a far bleaker appraisal on Wednesday of the threat posed by Japan’s nuclear crisis than the Japanese government had offered. He said American officials believed that the damage to at least one crippled reactor was much more serious than Tokyo had acknowledged, and he advised Americans to stay much farther away from the plant than the perimeter established by Japanese authorities. A woman was screened for radiation on Wednesday after being evacuated from an area near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The announcement opened a new and ominous chapter in the five-day-long effort by Japanese engineers to bring the six side-by-side reactors under control after their cooling systems were knocked out by an earthquake and a tsunami last Friday. It also suggested a serious split between Washington and its closest Asian ally at an especially delicate moment.

Beleaguered French foreign minister Michele Alliot-Marie announced her resignation yesterday after weeks of criticism over her contacts with the former Tunisian regime, stressing that she had committed no wrongdoing.

“While I do not feel that I have committed any wrongdoing, I have ... decided to leave my job as foreign minister,” Alliot-Marie wrote in her resignation letter to President Nicolas Sarkozy, a copy of which was seen by AFP.

“I ask you to accept my resignation,” she wrote in the letter which begins with a handwritten “Dear Nicolas.”

“Since several weeks, I have been the target of political attacks and then in the media, using, to create suspicion, counter-truths and generalisations,” wrote Alliot-Marie, who was named France’s first woman foreign minister in December.

“For the last two weeks, it is my family’s private life that has been suffering real harassment at the hands of certain media (and) I cannot accept that some people use this cabal to try to make people believe in a weakening of France’s international policy.”

“I have too much consideration for politics in the service of France to accept being used as a pretext for such an operation (and) I have too much loyalty to and friendship for you to accept that your international action could in any way suffer from it.”

Egypt's uprising has sent powerful shockwaves across the Middle East , with two deaths reported in street clashes in Iran and Bahrain and violent demonstrations in Yemen, as further protests and strikes erupted across Egypt. Thousands of Iranians defied a government ban and volleys of teargas to join a rally in Azadi Square in the centre of Tehran. The protests were the biggest since those that erupted after the disputed 2009 presidential elections. Mir Hossein Mousavi, leader of the Iranian Green movement, was placed under house arrest, as was Mehdi Karroubi, another prominent opposition figure. Protest rallies were also held in Isfahan and Shiraz. Iran's Islamic regime has hailed the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, though neither involved organised activity by Islamist opposition movements. Both protests were led by young people seeking political freedoms and an end to autocracy – just like many Iranian demonstrators. Large numbers of police and security forces, wearing riot gear and many mounted on motorbikes, were stationed around Tehran's main squares. Mobile phone connections were down in the area of the protests.

Romanian tax authority ANAF will refund in January value added tax to companies worth 1.36 billion lei (EUR1=RON4.2621), the highest sum returned so far in a single month, the authority said Wednesday.

Romania To Pay VAT Refunds Worth RON1.36B In January

Of the total refunds, ANAF has already paid Monday RON557 million, and will pay the rest of the sum by the end of the month. Some RON1.21 billion of the total refunds represents compensations.

In the past three years, over 52% of Fondul Poprietatea (FP) shares changed hands, according to data published by the Central Despository, with the value of transactions amounting to over 600 million euros, considering the prices thrown around the market. Transactions with Fondul Proprietatea (FP) shares boomed in the past year, after the appointment of American group Franklin Templeton as fund manager and the fund's Stock Exchange listing became a certainty. Around 30% of the shares changed hands in 2010. The estimated value of transactions, based on average prices thrown around the market, amounts to nearly 2 billion RON = over 460 million euros), accounting for 35% of the overall volume traded on the Stock Exchange. Foreign funds, SIFs (financial investment companies) and local speculators last year loaded their portfolios with Fondul Proprietatea shares, investing tens of millions of euros in the hope that the Stock Exchange listing will bring the price of shares up. For all these investors, the stake of listing Fondul Proprietatea is huge. The prices at which FP shares were traded last year fluctuated between 0.25 RON at the beginning of the year, and highs of around 0.6 RON in September, prior to dividend distribution. The fund's net asset value (NAV) is currently around 1.11 RON, according to FP reports.euro, criza datoriilor de stat, euroscepticismul, monede nationale, renuntarea la euro, salvare euro, zona euro

Germany sees no alternative to the Euro

(Reuters) - Germany sees no alternative to the euro and Angela Merkel's government believes the best way to strengthen the currency which has helped make the German economy so competitive is closer policy convergence across Europe.
But with German public support in the balance for rescuing euro partners Greece, Ireland and possibly others, it is a tough message for the domestic audience. This explains the apparently mixed messages emerging from Berlin. Germany voices strong objections to some of the proposed solutions to the euro crisis, such as joint euro zone bonds, and Merkel's insistence on a crisis mechanism from 2013 involving private investors has upset markets.
"But in the end Germany has a vital interest in the survival of the currency union," Dekabank economist Andreas Scheuerle said. While mass-selling daily Bild runs headlines like "How Long Will the Euro Hold Out?" and some pundits suggest a north-south euro divide, the crisis seems to have hardened the German establishment's view that there is no alternative to the single currency. The government, including the sometimes fractious members of Merkel's centre-right coalition, plus the business world and the serious media are at pains to nix any talk of Germany losing its enthusiasm for the euro or returning to the deutschemark. Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle, from the Free Democrats, Merkel's often uneasy coalition partners, said on Thursday reinstating national currencies in the euro area was "not realistic". Merkel repeats that Europe's fate is inextricably tied to the currency shared by 16 countries and her comments on private investors needing to share in sovereign risk from 2013 reflect a belief that the euro will still be around. Currently enjoying a much stronger economic recovery than its partners, Germany may return to pre-crisis growth levels as early as next year, largely thanks to exports. So grumbles about the euro are slapped down with the argument that a revived deutschemark would quickly render German exports too expensive."The mark would be so overvalued against other currencies that our exports would be in trouble," said Andre Schwarz of the exporters' association BGA. "The solution is not to let the euro break up."Agerpres, Mediafax, Romanian Vancouver Sun,Global News, Financial Times,Le Monde,Tribune, ,Wall Street Journal,The Washington Times,Athens News,The New York Times,USA Today

The Irish government stood on the brink of collapse Monday

DUBLIN (Nov. 22) -- The Irish government stood on the brink of collapse Monday, a day after being forced to accept a massive bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen said he would call an election for early next year, once Ireland passes an emergency budget and finalizes the bailout.The admission represented a huge political blow to Cowen, who only days ago was denying even the need for a bailout to solve the problems brought on by Irish banks' reckless speculation in overpriced real estate.
Ireland's six banks, five of which are already nationalized or part-owned by the state, would be pruned, merged and possibly sold off."Because of the huge risks they (Irish banks) took earlier this decade, they became a huge risk not only to this state but to the eurozone as a whole," he said.Irish banks invested aggressively in runaway property markets at home and abroad. After the 2008 credit crunch sent property prices into freefall, the government tried to save the banks from bankruptcy by insuring all of their borrowings against default. That unprecedented promise - made to retain investor confidence in the country - cannot be kept without a bailout, the government has finally been forced to concede.Unions warned that overhauling the banks would mean thousands more lost jobs in Ireland, where unemployment has already reached 13.6 percent, the second-highest rate in Europe after Spain.Banca Mondiala,FMI, Guvern,agenda de business, bugetul de stat, economie, revistapresei,romania,antena3.ro,realitatea.net,mediafax,bucuresti,camera de comert

" Murphy-boy" - My opinion about debt - there!

Debt's awful. I hope this thread doesn't become full of finger wagging and baby boomers who benefited from free education and affordable homes throwing rocks at 22 year olds who've put too much on their credit card.
I've got debt (credit card, graduate loan etc) and I hate it. I have a decent job and I can generally make all my payments but it eats way too much of my disposable income. I'd like to be able to go on holiday every year, and currently I can't. I'm managing too well to be helped by any charities or for IVA to be an option - but it still isn't fun. The CCCS web app just says: reduce your spending on meals at work. Basically I'm doing everything I can, and just about managing (although having to put at least one supermarket shop and travelcard payment a month on Visa does not seem like managing to me). No one ever mentions "increase your income" as a debt solution. You only ever hear "reduce your outgoings". But for me I think the only solution that remains is to find a better paid job.
I am anticipating a redundancy payment next March which, assuming I can find a new job and I don't have to live off it, will help me clear more than half of it (it's a funny thing to be looking forward to), then I think I'm going to have to leave the charity sector and move to something more lucrative. Which is not really what I want to do but I can't see any other option. Hey ho. Wish me luck.traian basescu,emil boc.vadim.radu tudor,imobiliare,restaurante,auto.ro,ziare.ro