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CYPRUS COULD BE the next eurozone member to seek a bailout, after revealing that the situation is ‘urgent’.
Finance Minister Vassos Shiarly has said that assistance may be required by the end of the month, according to Reuters. Shiarly said:
The issue is urgent. We know the recapitalisation of the [island's] banks must be completed by 30 June, and there are a few days left.
Shiarly also said that he saw a potential bailout package as a “comprehensive request covering not only present circumstances and the recapitalisation of the banks but also future needs”.
Michalis Sarris, the chairman of Cyprus’ second largest bank said on Friday that the country will have to seek bailout funds from the EU in order to recapitalise a banking sector pummeled by exposure to Greek debt.
Cypus Popular Bank is the Cypriot lender most exposed to risk from Greek debt. It posted a record €2.54 billion loss last year after taking a 76 per cent write-down on its Greek government bond holdings.
Yesterday Cypriot government spokesperson Stephanos Stephanou said that any financial assistance would come in the form of recapitalisation of the banking sector only.
The Famagusta Gazette reports that Stephanou dismissed suggestions that assistance from the EFSF would be due to refinancing needs. President Dimitris Christofias said meanwhile that a fresh package of spending cuts would not come at the expense of workers’ salaries and benefits.
State coffers are running dry because Cyprus is unable to borrow from international markets after two credit ratings agencies downgraded it to junk status.
The country is relying on a €2.5 billion low-interest Russian loan to see it through the year, and Christofias has said the government is looking to secure a similar loan, possibly from China.
Last August the credit ratings agency Fitch predicted that Cyprus would need a bailout.
Yesterday the prime minister of Spain – the latest eurozone country to secure a bailout – hailed it as a victory for his country and the EU. Germany has blocked Spanish attempts to have bailout funds injected directly to banks and not distributed via the government.
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Terrifying but sadly all too predictable as temperatures rise. You’d hope this would wake a few of the deniers up as it’s more local than some of the countries people chauvinistically dismiss. But alas these people would still be posting their copy and paste, Trump n dumpster science support, while the fire or flood is on their doorstep.
@SerotoninWars: you do realize they’ve had wildfires all over the globe for centuries?
@Niall English: You do realise that they have been far worse in recent years on account of climate change?
@Niall English: You do realise that ever more parched woodlands catch fire ever more easily, which spreads ever more quickly?
@JOHN O CONNELL: You mean when there were only a few millions of people?
And vast areas of the planet were covered in forests?
Imagine that!
@JOHN O CONNELL: Those fires were caused by a collision with fragments of a comet. What is your point?
It must have all grown back, from being burnt the last few years
@P. V. Aglue: You think houses and factories grow back?
What did the Greeks ever do for us?
@Padraig O’Brien: The birthplace of western thinking.
@Padraig O’Brien: Plato, Aristotle Euclid’s geometry aid the foundations for European rationality and scientific inquiry, and influenced the development of European science and mathematics. The epics of Homer and the tragedies of Euripides and Sophocles deeply influenced European literature; their Greek humanism, that emphasized individual dignity, profoundly affected the development of European and American literary traditions. The music of Ancient Greece, particularly the theoretical frameworks of harmonics developed by the likes of Pythagoras, laid the foundations of Western music theory. And the political ideas of Ancient Greece, particularly the concept of democracy as practised in Athens, have had a lasting impact on European politics and systems of government.
@David Jordan: I frequently reread an old school text book on ancient Greek history by Bury.
(Am reading it again at the moment.)
Fascinating.
@David Jordan: “The music of Ancient Greece, particularly the theoretical frameworks of harmonics developed by the likes of Pythagoras, laid the foundations of Western music theory”.
And then (c)rap came along and that all went out the window.
Here in Bulgaria the fires started in June and keep going. There is several at any given time, and once a fire is put down, another one starts in a different place. There are constant appeals for volunteers to help the fire service, who are exhausted. Turkey sent fire trucks to help, and the Chesch republic sent two planes. What seems to be missing is coordinated EU level approach to this – Southern Europe is burning, and will continue burning every summer. Did someone ask Ursula what the plan is?
@ Thesaltyurchin and David Jordan
Are ye too young to have seen Monty Python?
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