Eight banks have failed Europe's bank stress test designed to assess whether they can weather another economic crisis while 16 banks barely passed, bank regulators said on Friday.
Italy's upper house of parliament has agreed to a sweeping austerity budget in a move intended to allay concerns over a possible bailout. Meanwhile, Greece must come to terms with another ratings downgrade.
The International Monetary Fund called on emerging G-20 economies for a rapid macroeconomic policy tightening and demand rebalancing, while “pragmatic use of macro-prudential tools may be needed to manage large capital inflows”.
The IMF said private sector involvement was fundamental to a Greek bailout and urged Athens to move faster on fiscal and structural reforms to avoid debt default.
The head of the IMF Western Hemisphere Department Nicolas Eyzaguirre described the Argentine economy as “a frying pan with boiling oil”, in direct reference to a possible overheating as was recently warned by The Economist.
The good performance of the Brazilian economy and its management of the 2008 world financial crisis have been headlines across the world, but there are also some warning signals form analysts regarding the possibility of asset bubbles and their consequences.
New IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde pledged to push ahead with reforms to give fast-growing emerging markets greater sway at the global lender and said the world economy was on the rebound.
Failure by US lawmakers to agree soon on a deal to raise the government's borrowing limit could deliver a severe shock to a still fragile recovery and global markets, the International Monetary Fund warned.
Former managing director of the IMF, Michel Camdessus admitted Thursday in Buenos Aires that during his time working for the organization, they 'made many mistakes with Argentina,' particularly highlighting the 90s.
With Greece on the precipice of financial collapse and a full Euro confidence crisis looming while EU leaders can’t agree on the next steps, the example of Uruguay in 2002/03 stands out as a successful smart way out of the crisis that spilt over from neighbouring Argentina.