Time for recap of today's main headlines: UK GDP falls 0.2pc in Q4 2011, worse than 0.1pc expected • Some MPC members believe further expansion of QE is likely to be required • IMF chief Christine Lagarde has warned that if a haircut on private sector Greek debt is not enough, public holders of debt will have to participate in renogotiation • The ECB is said to remain opposed to losses on its Greek debt holdings despite pressure • Greek debt talks will resume tomorrow in Athens • Portugal needs €30bn in additional EU/IMF funds to solve credit crunch • World Bank says it will make $27bn available over the next two years for emerging Europe, Cental Asia nations hit by eurozone crisis • George Soros warns that the European debt crisis could destroy the EU. The German chancellor insisted – against widespread resistance elsewhere in the eurozone and in the UK – that the European court of justice (ECJ) be empowered to police the public spending and budget policies of the 17 countries in the euro. She also called for the eventual creation of a European political union, with many more national powers ceded to a central government, a strengthened bicameral European parliament, and the ECJ assuming the role of Europe's supreme court. Days before the latest crucial EU summit, which – at Merkel's insistence and evoking scant enthusiasm elsewhere – is to finalise an international treaty between eurozone governments entrenching German-style fiscal and budgetary rigour in all single currency countries, the chancellor admitted to having doubts about the strategy she has pursued throughout the crisis. "We haven't overcome the crisis yet," Merkel said. "Of course, there's Greece, a special case where, despite all the efforts that have been made, neither the Greeks themselves nor the international community have yet managed to stabilise the situation." Asked about the European response over the past two years, during which Berlin has often dictated terms and encountered strong resistance in Brussels, Paris, and at the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Merkel said: "Good politicians always have doubts, as a way of constantly reviewing whether they are on the right track." There were no doubts about her aim – to save the euro and preserve the EU. The reservations concerned the means to those ends.
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jijiJust for the aviodance of doubt, the IMF has put out a statement sayig it has not asked the ECB to intervene in Greece's negotiations with its bondholders. The fund's spokesman William Murray said tonight: To ensure debt sustainability for Greece, it is essential that a new program be supported by a combination of private sector involvement and official sector support that will bring debt to 120 percent of GDP by 2020. The Fund has no view on the relative contribution of private sector involvement and official sector support in achieving this target. In line with this view, the IMF has not asked the ECB to play any specific role. US stocks continued to climb after the Federal Reserve decided to hold interest rates near zero, and the markets have closed up...
ITN News at 10.
2012, 25, 01 remember that Date, a Reporter from the Davos summit, tells Mark Austin "Britain is technically in a Double Dip recession", but he added "it is expected to be shortlived"
Like that shortlived War on Libya? that was going to last days not weeks or months? sorry not War "peace action"
Should i tell everyone where the Country is in the Mess its in
should i lay it out?
Psychopaths are running the Country, and the World economy.
Christine Lahgarde was being interviewed earlier and said "Britain should continue with its Austerity plans" etc (Austerity being hardship)
Who is she to tell us what to do in our Country? telling us to sit and take the pain so a bunch of Conmen can get rich of our suffering.
If this were 1940, Christine Lahgarde (an im saying this in public), she would be collaberating with the Nazi's to overthrow Britain. continue with austerity, continue destroying peoples lives christine to please your fat head Handlers in brussels, look at these people ruining our lives Louise mesnch? what planet did she come from? get back on your spacehship-Osborne, Cameron, Milliband, all of them a bunch of maniacs committing financial suicide, and that Joke Alexander? why are people letting these clowns send us down the toilet? They are ruining our lives, and selling your future, and your Children's future's down the drain with their arrogance and dehuamising approach to life as they indulge in a romanesque orgy of Greed corruption and enslavement of the masses.
Double-dip recession a bunch of Dipsticks And after ten years of wars, they are getting ready to take us into the big one, ive said it before and i will keep saying it, Speak it now, or become a slave.
it's s really, urgently necessary that particularly young people can have the experience that there is progress. I don't think it's a great miracle that you've seen many, many young people convinced that Europe isn't a good option for them.
16.38 Austerity isn't the only part of the solution, says Merkel:
It's not only austerity measures... this is not only in and of itself of the essence, but also structural reforms that lead to more jobs. We all now this takes longer than 12 months or 18 months to achieve. We still have to convince each other that this is necessary.
16.33 Merkel says there is a "very clear erosion of confidence" in Europe's strength around the world.
What is at the foreground of discussions is quite often the problem of public indebtedness. We have difficulties and weaknesses as regards competitiveness, and that's even more difficult to combat.
The financial and economic crisis that started in America left a deep imprint on Europe and we are still working on the fallout from this.
16.30 "There was a glaring lack of regulation that brought us into this predicament," she says in her opening statement, which formally launches the Davos meeting.
In a wide-ranging speech at the German Council on Foreign Relations think tank in Berlin, Ms Lagarde also called for an additional $500bn for the IMF as it seeks to keep afloat countries battered by the crisis. And she had a dire warning for policymakers if they failed to do what was necessary, saying the world could slide into a "1930s moment" of isolationism, which led to the Great Depression and eventually to world war. On the euro-zone, Ms Lagarde acknowledged that a great deal had already been accomplished but that the policies agreed so far "form pieces, but pieces only, of a comprehensive solution." She said the crisis-wracked euro-zone had to focus on rediscovering growth as well as bolstering its defenses against contagion from the debt turmoil and pulling closer together politically and economically. To spur growth, she called indirectly on the European Central Bank to lower interest rates, already at a record low. With inflation falling sharply, "additional and timely monetary easing will be important," she said. Ms Merkel said it was not the time for debating an increase in funding for eurozone bailout funds and the priority was to ensure the effectiveness of the current fund and fast introduction of its permanent successor. She also told a news conference with Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo there was no question of extending Greece a bridging loan if talks with its private sector creditors about a haircut drag on, as some media have reported. "The priority now is to get the ESM (European Stability Mechanism, the permanent facility) into operation, to conclude negotiations and see how much capital we will pay in," Ms Merkel said when asked about Ms Lagarde's comments.
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