Morning briefing: Greece negotiations to start
The Corner | March 11, 2015 | Varoufakis set to raid Greece’s social security fund with IMF loan loan repayment imminent.
IMF
Greek agreement does not dispel mistrust and acrimony
MADRID, February 23,2015 | By JP Marín Arrese | The agreement reached on Friday averted a full-fledged crisis but did not dispel mutual mistrust and acrimony. EU partners remain far from convinced the Hellenic government will honour its commitments. Irritation accumulated in the days following the deal, which Mr Schäuble underlined with his the grossly impolite and scathing remarks that “ Greeks certainly will have a difficult time to explain the deal to their voters”. This acrimonious climate points to further clashes flaring in future. The last-minute truce will not entail a stable peace.
Greece granted bailout extension
By Alexandre Mato in BRUSSELS & Sean Duffy in MADRID | A day of hard negotiations finally produced a positive outcome.Greece will work throughout the weekend to ready proposals for Monday´s meeting, but politicans were visibly relieved after an arduous week.
Greece no closer to new deal
MADRID| Sean Duffy | Markets likely to be turbulent today as problems mount in intractable Greek negotiations.
“Austerity, not lack of liquidity, is what is causing the Eurozone depression”
MADRID | By Ana Fuentes | She believes that central banks should act coordinately, since competition between them can cause currency distortions. British economist and former banker Frances Coppola has been one of the main critics of the European Central Bank’s QE “because it supports asset prices, but that is all it does.” She spoke to The Corner about shadow banking and how financials should be accepting and managing risk on both sides of the Atlantic.
If Spain will lead the Eurozone in 2015 and 2016, what happened to the Spailout?
MADRID | The Corner | In spite of, or maybe, thanks to the so-called Spailout (2012), Spain is today one of Europe’s driving forces. The International Monetary Fund’s estimates on global economy point to the country as the outperformer of the Eurozone for the first time in six years. Its GDP would grow by 2% this year and 1.8% in 2016.
It was the IMF’s fault!
SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes via Historinhas | It’s in the nature of the” widely held” IMF to have an upward bias in its forecasts, just as it is very hard for the CEO of a widely held group to go to the shareholders meeting to present dire forecasts.
Eurogroup to park economic stimulus talks
BRUSSELS | By Alexandre Mato | EU finance ministers are meeting in Milan on Friday to focus on Ireland, Greece and Cyprus exit plan to leave their IMF-EU financial assistance programs. The much-needed debate about economic stimulus and growth is not on the agenda, nor will be Scotland, despite the thorny economic implications of an eventual yes vote in the upcoming referendum.
The IMF crisis and how to solve it
ATHENS | By Gabriel Sterne via The Agora | The IMF is approaching its 70th birthday and the Greek programme has been a candidate for one of the most credibility-sapping in its history. Here I trace the IMF’s role in programme from its stormy launch; its misfiring implementation; the Fund’s half-hearted apology; and ongoing efforts to draw lessons and revise its sovereign debt restructuring framework, which appear destined to deliver insufficient meaningful change. A transparency revolution is both necessary and feasible. It worked for central banks in the 1990s. Why not the Fund?
Georgia judges his ex-president and lifts the economy
MADRID | By Ángel Maestro | August arrived with the positive outcome that the IMF Executive Board will support the economic reform program in Georgia with 154 million Stand-By dollars. Among the economic measures, paradoxically, to reduce the dollarization in favour of the home currency and the euro, in order to accelerate its economic and political stabilization process. Concerning the second is the macro-judicial processes that will begin this Saturday against its former President Mikheil Saakashvili in relation to abuse of power charges which have driven numerous concerns by several worldwide institutions and non-governmental organizations.