Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, will
cut short her trip to Asia to ensure that she is present at next Tuesday's
Eurogroup meeting on Greece, according to a spokesman. Gerry Rice told
reporters: The managing director will participate in the eurogroup meeting on
November 20 as she usually does, and that will mean shortening her current trip
to Asia. On Monday, Ms Lagarde openly disagreed with Jean-Claude Juncker, the
head of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, over a critical target for reducing
Greek debt levels. The EU wants to give Greece an extra two years to meet its
debt reduction target of 120pc of GDP by 2022 instead of 2020. The IMF
doesn't. The 2020 “debt sustainability” target was a condition for the IMF’s
involvement in the second Greek bail-out. Speaking to an audience in Milan, Mr
Draghi also said that Europe's debt crisis proved that there was still a need to
complete economic and monetary union, though he added that countries faced a
long road towards this, with much uncertainty. European governments should
focus on spending cuts, not tax rises to get their deficits down, according to
the head of the European Central Bank. Mario Draghi said that the ECB's action
(via its €1 trillion LTRO bazooka and announcement of the OMT programme) had
helped to calm markets, but that it was up to governments to regain
credibility....Why is everyone so surprised by the fact the Eurozone is in recession (for
that matter pretty much all or Western Europe!)???? The shock expressed on
these threads staggers me!!! Lazy, stupid people have always been poor
and always will!!A continent populated by indolent masses addicted to cheap credit and state handouts and totally unwilling to do a hard day's work for a reasonable wage!! And you think that's a recipe for an economic miracle??? The only miracle is that the farce that is the Eurozone hasn't already imploded!!
I don't need a Belgian in a cheap suit to spout figures and forecasts at me.....I can pretty much tell you what's going to happen next unless you lot start rolling your sleeves up!!
7 comments:
By the end of this year Greece will have lost a fifth of its economic output, and by the end of next year that will be a quarter, so I think everyone pretty much acknowledges it as a depression. But the figures are poorly reported here because Greece doesn't report quarterly growth figures, so the -7.3% is compared with a year earlier, whereas for all the other countries cited the figures are from the second quarter.
"Double-dip recession confirmed in eurozone" - shock!
"Economists said the data could prompt the European Central Bank to cut rates from 0.75% to 0.5% sooner rather than later. Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight said: "Indeed, an interest rate cut in December is very possible."" - So I assume we can safely predict a confirmed triple dip recession in say.....August next year?
You are clearly correct....
If we can encourage the IOC to allow us to run an full scale Olympics every 2 months the UK economy should be absolutely booming. As long as the Queen doesn't spoilt by insisting the plebs have another holiday for one of her grossly unpopular and unnecessary jubilees.
We have been on the sticky end of an economic war between the US and Europe for some years. I don't think we're winning...
A good point and one rarely mentioned regarding the USA fear of the USD losing its reserve currency status, their price monopoly of oil would fail bringing their empire to its knees.
There is no 'win' between Europe and the USA, imho the circa 700 military bases the USA have will be abandoned inside the next forty years as so many economic tipping points are reached and breached, it is a race to the bottom.
Eurozone woes could push Denmark into recession
Back with recession watch, Denmark is likely to join those reporting an economic downturn, according to its finance minister.
In an interview with Reuters, Bjarne Corydon said the third quarter could see a second successive fall in output, following a 0.4% decline in the previous three months. This meets the technical definition of a recession.
He said economic growth for the whole year could fall short of the government's forecast of 0.9%, but he expected a rebound to 1.7% in 2013. He said:
Our general view is that 2012 is going to be a disappointing year, mostly just because of the developments in Europe... and sustained uncertainty over the eurozone.
Spain’s cabinet has just passed a decree freezing the final stage of seizing homes for two years for the most needy following public outrage over recent suicides of people who were about to be evicted.
Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said families earning up to €1,597 a month will be eligible, as will large families, or those with children aged under three or disabled dependants. Unemployed debtors or those not eligible for unemployment benefit will also be covered.
“The overdue rate on mortgages is above 3%. There are many people who punctually meet their mortgage payments,” de Guindos told a news conference after the cabinet meeting. “The decree is for especially vulnerable members of society. The government thinks it is urgent to defend them.”
De Guindos also gave details of the “bad bank” due to be set up this month to pick up toxic assets from Spain’s ailing banks, a pre-condition for receiving funds from a European bailout worth up to €100 bn.
“The company (bad bank) will have a máximum limit of €90 bn although the amount is expected to be around €60 bn,” de Guindos said. “The average price adjustment at which assets will be transferred from Banks to the holding company will be 50%.”.
The decline in gross domestic product was the second straight, and the euro zone has failed to expand for four-straight quarters. Economists in Europe generally define recession as two straight quarterly contractions in GDP.
Whereas the 2008-2009 recession was triggered abroad by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Europe's current downturn is largely homegrown. A debt crisis that began in tiny Greece three years ago has engulfed Southern Europe and Ireland, pushing unemployment sharply higher and forcing governments to enact painful tax increases and spending cuts to reduce debt loads.
GDP in the 17-member euro zone slid 0.1% from the previous quarter, according to the European Union's statistics agency, which translates into an annualized decline of 0.2%, according to calculations by J.P. Morgan. GDP fell 0.7% in the second quarter, at an annualized rate.
"We can dispense with the euphemisms and equivocation, and openly proclaim that the euro area economy is indeed in technical recession," said James Ashley, economist at RBC Capital Markets.
The recession is expected to accelerate in the fourth quarter, economists said, threatening the global economy. The euro bloc is the world's second-largest economic region behind the U.S. GDP grew last quarter in the U.S. at a 2% annualized rate. It shrank 3.5% in Japan. China's growth has softened from the double-digit gains of recent years.
Post a Comment