European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet faced down pressure for new moves to shore up the weakest Eurozone countries, but kept options open even as he said Spain and Portugal were “not Greece”.
IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn will travel to Brazil and Peru from May 25-28 to meet with government leaders, leading figures from the private sector, and with students and academics as part of efforts to engage more closely with stakeholders in the region.
Given the high levels of global liquidity, Argentina should succeed in restructuring its 20 billion US dollars in defaulted bonds according to a senior official from the International Monetary Fund.
The recovery in Latin America and the Caribbean is advancing faster than anticipated but at different speeds across countries, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its latest Regional Economic Outlook-Western Hemisphere report, which was launched Tuesday in Montevideo, Uruguay.
The European Central Bank (ECB) has moved to shore up the €110 billion EU/IMF rescue of Greece by offsetting the impact of the “junk” rating on the country’s debt.
Germany's cabinet has approved its contribution to the Eurozone and IMF bailout of Greece. The German parliament is set to pass the legislation later this week to allow its loan—worth 22.4 billion Euros over three years—to be paid.
Euro zone members and the IMF have agreed to a 110 billion Euro (146.2 billion US dollars) three-year bailout package to rescue Greece's embattled economy. In return for the loans, Greece will make major austerity cuts which Prime Minister George Papandreou said involved “great sacrifices”.
The head of the International Monetary Fund has warned that the crisis in Greece could spread throughout Europe. Dominique Strauss-Kahn said that every day lost in resolving Greece's problems risks spreading the impact “far away”.
Latin American economies as a whole are recovering nicely from the global economic downturn but “cheap and abundant external finances raise the risk of a boom-bust cycle”, said Nicolas Eyzaguirre, IMF Western Hemisphere Department Director.
Brazil’s government may take additional steps to limit gains in the local currency Real should advanced economies favor policies that keep their currencies weak, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said.