Entries Tagged 'Money' ↓

A loan of four billion dollars for the insurance needs of Ukraine’s natural gas was discussed by the European Union, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), according to an article published yesterday in the daily newspaper” Times.

According to the publication mentioned, the state energy company of Ukraine, Nak Naftogaz Ukrainy, has no money to pay natural gas that must be delivered next month, till the deadline July seven. In these conditions the utility companies are afraid that the Russian Gazprom will close taps pipes which transit Ukraine.

Moreover, the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin threatened that in case Ukraine will not pay until July 7, Russia “reserves right to act according to contract”.

The European Commission will organize, at the end of this week, a meeting that will participate a series of international financial institutions and gas companies, in the hope that will be able to avoid the interruption of the deliveries in July.

Last days, European Commission President: Jos Manuel Barroso, called on the most vulnerable states to put in place emergency plans and prepare for the worst. In the next period Ukraine should buy about 19 billion cubic meters of natural gas, which will be stored to cover the consumption in the winter period, but funds awarded to Kiev under a loan agreement with the IMF have finished, and the government has recognized that cannot pay the gas bill for July.

Bulgaria does not currently require emergency assistance from the International Monetary Fund, but if the situation gets worse the country will seek international support, according to Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, the press agency Thomson Reuters writes.

At the beginning of the last week, right party from opposition of GERB, expected to win parliamentary elections from July 5, has announced that Bulgaria needs to conclude an agreement with the IMF and the current government, led by a socialist, would have to sign one up to this point to mitigate the risks arising from the threat of a high budget deficit.

“We do not have technical problems, and if in a moment the necessity of a future international credit, we can perform fast and effective discussions with the IMF and European financial institutions, “said Stanishev.

“Main idea is to solve the situation alone (impact of economic crisis) if it is possible. For now, Bulgaria is good to handle itself, “he added. Stanishev pointed out that a possible agreement with the IMF will depend on decisions that will take the new government.

GERB, which according to all opinion polls is declared the winner of highest number of votes, but not of a sufficient number to obtain a decisive majority in elections in July, announced that if he gets in power, will immediately begin discussions with the IMF.

Ten of the biggest U.S. banks will be able to return 68 billion dollars (49 billion euro) in federal aid, the U.S. Treasury has announced, a sign that the financial crisis is nearing an end, writes BBC News.

President Barack Obama welcomed the decision, but declaring that this does not mean that “our financial problems are over”. Banks are eager to return the funds received to escape the restrictions imposed by government, such as limiting pay for executives.

The Treasury has not specified the name which banks will be allowed to return the money, but JPMorgan, American Express, Bank of New York Mellon, BB’T, Capital One Financial, Morgan Stanley, State Street, Goldman Sachs and U.S. Bancorp have confirmed that they received the cash.

They had good results in tests for stress. All the banks except Morgan Stanley and Northern Trust have passed stress tests conducted by the government in May, tests that tried to determine if banks have enough capital to face further losses if deterioration in Further economic conditions.

Northern Trust has not been subjected to tests, and Morgan Stanley announced that attracted additional funds. The return fund could recover TARP fund, can theoretically be given to other institutions with problems.

The European Central Bank decided to keep unchanged the current interest rate at 1%, says Bloomberg News. The Bank of England took a similar decision, with the reference interest rate remaining at 0.5%.

“The end of free fall of the world economy would help the ECB to no longer feel pressure, to act over the benchmark interest rate”, said Laurent Bilka , economist at Nomura International in London.

“Things are evolving in a good way”.

Efforts of the European Central Bank President Jean Claude Trichet to reconcile strategies of the bank divided because of the acquisition of assets, could be facilitated by signs that the world economy is recovering from crisis , writes Bloomberg.

Although the strategy had a number of divergences in terms of volume of assets that will be purchased, it is unlikely that the ECB to make acquisitions of secured bonds, more than 60 billion euro.

The European Union will allocate 19 billion euro from the planned expenditure of the European Social Fund to support people affected by the economic crisis. Also, the EU will allocate funds in advance and co-financing by Member States will not be necessary for the period 2009-2010.

The proposals are part of a project in ten points that will be putted to analysis of Heads of State of the EU in the second half of June.

“Europe has gone immediately to action to meet economic and financial crisis, including the social dimension of it. Commission make a step towards joint commitment and coordinated action from the EU Member States and social partners to save and create jobs”, said today the European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso.

EU will accelerate the development provision of billion euros for vocational retraining through the European Social Fund. In addition, together with international financial institutions, especially with the group of the European Investment Bank, the EU will create a new feature of microcredit to 500 million euro to support entrepreneurs.