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Transaction tax necessary to meet development needs, say MEPs
March 25, 2010--EU Member States must not only deliver on their international aid pledges, but also bring in a financial transactions tax and consider a possible temporary debt moratorium, to help developing countries to cope with the effects of the global financial and economic crisis, say MEPs in a resolution adopted on Thursday. At least 25% of the EU's CO2 emission trading revenue should be allocated to the fight against climate change in developing countries, they add.
During the years running up to the current crises the developing countries already suffered from the food and energy crisis as well as from the impact of climate change. The financial crises exacerbated the difficult situation of these countries (…)
The initially economic crisis is becoming a development, social and humanitarian crisis", declared the rapporteur Enrique Guerrero Salom (S&D, ES), presenting his report in plenary on Wednesday.
The resolution was adopted with 283 votes in favour, 278 against and 15 abstentions.
"Fulfilment of the Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitments is imperative but still not sufficient to tackle the development emergency", so additional innovative sources of development funding are needed, say MEPs.
Need for a levy on international transactions
MEPs are convinced that taxing banking transactions "would be a fair contribution from the financial sector to global social justice". At the same time, they call for an international levy on financial transactions to make the tax system more equitable and to generate additional resources for development funding and global public goods such as water.
Financing climate change measures in developing countries
MEPs call on EU Member States and the European Commission to agree, within the European Union Emission Trading System framework, "to devote at least 25% of the revenues generated from the auctioning of carbon emission allowances to support developing countries in coping with climate change."
Possibility of temporary moratorium on debt repayments
Developing countries are expected to face a huge financial shortfall (estimated at US$ 315 billion in 2010), which imperils spending in vital areas like education, health and social protection, says the resolution
MEPs therefore consider it appropriate "to explore the grounds for an agreement with creditor countries to establish a temporary moratorium or debt cancellation for the poorest countries to enable them to implement countercyclical fiscal policies to mitigate the severe effects of the crisis." Parliament proposes "efforts to facilitate arrangements for debt arbitration".
Combating tax havens and illicit capital flows
MEPs warn that "the negative impact of tax havens may be an insurmountable hindrance to economic development in poor countries", because it undermines national tax systems and increases the cost of taxation.
Tax fraud in developing countries leads to an annual loss of tax revenue corresponding to 10 times the amount of development aid from developed countries, the report underlines.
MEPs therefore call for "a new binding, global financial agreement which forces transnational corporations, including their various subsidiaries, to automatically disclose the profits made and the taxes paid on a country-by-country basis, so as to ensure transparency about sales, profits and taxes."
Reducing remittance costs
One very direct consequence of the crisis for developing countries is the drop in remittances, the money sent home by migrants working abroad. Remittances fell by an estimated 7% in 2009 compared to 2008, which in turn had a considerable impact on the GDP of low-income countries.
To help remedy this, MEPs "ask Member States and recipient countries to facilitate the delivery of remittances and to work towards the reduction of their costs" and welcome the G8 commitment made in L'Aquila "to reduce the cost of remittance transfers from 10 % to 5 % in 5 years."
Source: European Parliment
Budget 2010: Chancellor’s Departments Contribution to Operational Efficiency and Smarter Government Savings
March 25, 2010--Today the Chancellor’s Departments announce they will deliver £261m of savings, as their contribution towards £11bn savings that are being made across Government.
The Budget has today reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to making £11bn of savings a year by 2012/13 from efficiency and streamlining the centre of Government.
The £11bn of savings will contribute to halving net borrowing and protecting key public services. The savings will come following the work of the Operational Efficiency Programme and Putting the Frontline First: Smarter Government.
The Chancellor's Departments will meet this target through a range of activities, including:
saving over £100m by decommissioning and rationalising outdated systems in HMRC, following a successful renegotiation of its contract with its IT partners;
reducing HMRC estates by 130 offices and utilising flexibility in PFI contracts to vacate further properties; and
Putting the Frontline First: Smarter Government
Source: HM Treasury
Turkey declines Finansbank bond request
March 25, 2010--Turkey’s banking regulator has turned down the first request for bond issuance by a commercial bank, and dealt a blow to hopes of rapid development in the country’s stunted corporate fixed-income market.
Finansbank, owned by National Bank of Greece, said on Wednesday that the Banking Regulation and Supervision Board (BDDK) had rejected the sale of asset-backed debt instruments and bonds by commercial and Islamic-style banks.
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Source: FT.com
Germany, France line up IMF-eurozone rescue for Greece
March 25, 2010--Germany and France on Thursday thrashed out a deal to involve the IMF in a rescue package for Greece's ailing economy, as European leaders sought a strategy to halt the euro's slide.
After bloated Athens debts dragged the currency's value to a 10-month low, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed, just before a European Union summit opened, to bring in the International Monetary Fund alongside bilateral loans.
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Source: EUbusiness
ETF Landscape: European STOXX 600 Sector ETF Net Flows, week ending 19-Mar-10
March 25, 2010--European Stoxx 600 sector exchange-traded funds had 119.9US$M net inflows during the week ending 19 March.
The largest sector ETF inflows were in basic resources with USD159.5m and oil and gas with USD25.1m.
Healthcare experienced net outflows of USD38.8m.
Year-to-date, media has had the largest net inflows with USD291.6m net new assets, followed by utilities with USD118.0m YTD.
Telecommunications sector ETFs have had the largest net outflows with USD295.4m YTD.
In total, Stoxx 600 sector ETFs have seen USD272.6m net inflows YTD.
Source: ETF Research and Implementation Strategy, Blackrock
Six New Lyxor ETFs Launched on Xetra
March 24, 2010--Four more equity index funds and two more bond index funds from Société Générale subsidiary Lyxor International Asset Management’s ETF offering have been tradable on Xetra® since Wednesday.
With the four new equity index ETFs, Lyxor is offering investors the opportunity to participate in the performance of the MSCI real estate indices for the first time. The indices track the performance of companies whose core business is in Asian (ex-Japan), European, US and global real estate markets.
This also includes shares in companies in real estate investment, and real estate management and development.
One of the two new bond index ETFs enables investors to participate in the development of the EuroMTS AAA Government Index for the first time. The underlying index tracks the value of euro-denominated government bonds issued in the euro zone and with AAA ratings.
Moreover, investors have the opportunity to participate in the performance of the Markit iBoxx Euro Liquid Corporate Non Financials Index for the first time. This index contains up to 20 euro-denominated government bonds from companies outside the financial sector. In order for a bond to be included in the index it must have a nominal issue volume of at least €750 million, have been issued at least three years ago and have a residual maturity of at least 18 months. The companies are required to have a rating of BBB– or better.
The product offering in Deutsche Börse’s XTF® segment currently contains a total of 617 exchange-listed index funds, making it the largest offering of all European stock exchanges. This selection, together with an average monthly trading volume of €11 billion, makes Xetra Europe’s leading trading venue for ETFs.
view product list
Source: Deutsche Börse
iShares has lists an additional ETF on the NYSE Euronext European markets today
March 24, 2010--NYSE Euronext is pleased to announce that iShares has listed an additional ETF on the NYSE Euronext European markets today:
ETF name:iShares DJ Euro STOXX 50 (Acc)
ETF ISIN:IE00B4L5YV07
ETF Symbol:IEUA
ETF Bloomberg Ticker:IEUA NA
NYSE Euronext now has 518 listings of 470 ETFs based on more than 300 indices. So far this year, 21 ETFs have been listed on NYSE Euronext’s European markets.
Visit http://www.euronext.com/etf for more info
Source: NYSE Euronext
European Commission launches first step towards review of working time rules
March 24, 2010--The European Commission has today requested the views of workers' and employers' representatives on the options for reviewing EU rules on working time. The first stage consultation asks the European social partners at whether action is needed at EU level on the Working Time Directive (2003/88/EC) and what scope it should take. This represents the first step towards a comprehensive review of the Directive and comes after previous the attempts to revisit the existing legislation reached an impasse in April 2009.
László Andor, EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion said: "The failure to reach an agreement on revising the working time legislation last year does not mean the problems around the existing rules have gone away. We still need to find a balanced solution that addresses the real needs of workers, businesses and consumers in the 21st century." He underlined: "We need a comprehensive review of the rules based on a thorough impact assessment with a strong social dimension. Today we invite the social partners to reflect broadly on this crucial issue and to come forward with innovative proposals that move beyond unsuccessful debates of the past."
In 2004, the Commission put forward a proposal to amend Directive 2003/88/EC, following wide consultations. The proposal aimed to tackle a series of problems left unsolved by the existing legislation and case law of the Court of Justice, namely to clarify the Directive's application to on-call time in certain sectors of work; to give more flexibility in calculating weekly working time; and to review the individual opt-out from the 48-hour limit. However, in April 2009, government representatives and the European Parliament concluded they could not reach agreement on the proposal, despite lengthy negotiations.
view the Working Time Directive Commission assesses stability and convergence programmes of ten EU Member States
"The economic and financial crisis has taken its toll on public finances. Fiscal stimulus was necessary to support the recovery but the past two years have wiped out 20 years of fiscal consolidation. This means that we have to come back gradually to budgetary rigour next year at the latest ", said Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn.
Czech Republic
The programme foresees a reduction of the headline deficit from 6.6% of GDP in 2009 to 3% of GDP in 2013, in line with the Council recommendation of 2 December 2009. The authorities have started implementing a sizeable consolidation package already in 2010, with a planned budgetary adjustment of around 2% of GDP in structural terms. Despite the expected economic recovery, the improvement in the structural balance is however projected to slow down markedly in 2011 and 2012. The fiscal adjustment in these years relies on expenditure cuts which however are not supported by concrete measures. Moreover, the programme does not provide information on how to achieve the reduction of the deficit projected for 2013. read more Eurozone business activity shoots up in March
Any score above the boom-and-bust 50-point line indicates economic growth.
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Source: European Commission
March 24, 2010--Today the European Commission examined the updated stability and convergence programmes (SCPs)1 of the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Romania and Slovenia. In line with the Commission's assessments of a first group of fourteen Member States last week (see IP/10/288), the evaluation must be seen against the background of the economic and financial crisis which has led to a sharp deterioration of public finances since 2009 and triggered the Council decisions to open Excess Deficit Procedures (EDP) for a large majority of Member States. Within the batch of countries assessed today, only Denmark and Luxemburg have kept their general government deficits below 3% in 2009, although their fiscal situation is set to deteriorate markedly in 2010.
For most countries this year will mark a fiscal consolidation process consistent with the recommendation set out in the EDPs and, in the case of Latvia, Hungary and Romania, with the conditions set out in the international financial assistance programmes. As to the budgetary targets set out in the programmes, the growth assumptions underlying these projections are in several cases optimistic especially in outer years, while the budgetary consolidation strategy is often not sufficiently backed up by concrete measures from 2011 onwards.
Source: European Commission
March 24, 2010--Private sector business activity across the eurozone shot up in March, with the largest increase since August 2007 suggesting that an improvement in dire unemployment figures is in the offing.
The purchasing managers' index (PMI) for the 16 countries that share the currency, compiled by data and research group Markit, jumped to 55.5 points from 53.7 points in February, the researchers said.
Source: EUbusiness
