Lithuania will sell euro- denominated bonds in less than a month in a second auction this year. The government targets reducing the budget deficit next year and will cut spending and raise taxes by a total of 4.2 billion litai to narrow the gap, Kubilius said today.
4.2bn litas is ~11% of 2008 government revenue or 3.7% of 2008 GDP. If government expenditure multiplier is 1 than GDP of the country will contract 3.7% only from lower public spending. In fact, the decline can be as much as 7% or 10%, as more money is saved in recession than it is spend. And this excludes firms and households consumption.
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Lithuania… had its foreign and local- currency debt ratings cut by Moody’s, which cited “severe pressure” on the budget… a reversal of this trend [recession] is unlikely to occur within the medium-term rating horizon… Subdued growth in western Europe will lead to diminished demand for Lithuania’s exports and less foreign investment… Domestic consumption is also likely to be limited by falling employment, wage cuts, a weakened banking sector and government budget consolidation.
A quite unexpected step from the Moody’s, reminding for all those “bottom searchers” where the country is heading. Additionally, statistic department reported consumer confidence index of -40, compared to -47 in August and -26 a year ago.
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The surplus will increase because “the goods and services deficit shrank, as well as due to losses of foreign companies and the intake of European Union funds for agriculture,” Rimsevics said today in a statement.The bank will officially
release the data on Sept. 23.
Many thanks are going to Mr. Rimsevics for creating transparency in Latvian accounting. Now we see more of what we would like to see from a country with doubtful currency peg and weak fundamentals. That’s foreign companies’ losses and EU funds that drive rising CA. The question “how sustainable it is” persists.
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New York state made claim for $1.2 billion in taxes, interest and penalties from Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. The state is seeking payment for tax bills dating to 1994, according to the claim form.
Bad luck. Would the head reached out Lehman as they did Goldman, they would have been received at least $1.2bn. Goldman Sachs paid $568m in taxes during the last 13 months. However, it obtained $13bn via AIG and $10bn from the government to keep going, making Goldman’s tax paid equal to 2.5% of the total sum. Not the best return on investment. Efficiency, efficiency, efficiency…
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State debt may exceed 60 percent of gross domestic product in 2011, Rimsevics said. The debt ratio may fall below 60 percent the following year in time for meeting criteria to adopt the euro in 2014, he said. State debt was below 10 percent of GDP in 2007.
Dear Mr. Rimsevics, I am decently asking how could it be you have mixed up this statement with previous credo about Debt/GDP ratio (<60%). Please let me know where my interpretations are wrong when I compare the above words with this interview.
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Original memorandum of intent of the government differed from what had been published. Two issues from the published document had indeed been removed at request of the Bank of Latvia and the Treasury. One is related to some information that can put investors into more advantageous position relative to the Treasury in sale of government debt. Another was able to create more benefit for speculative attacks on Latvian Lat. One particular number could harm the whole country interest.
That’s how Wednesday’s Latvian press described the deal between Latvia and IMF.
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Ober-Haus Real Estate Advisors is presenting the Lithuanian apartment price index (OHBI), which shows summarized changes in prices for apartments in the five largest Lithuanian cities (Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai, and Panevėžys).
In August nominal price index fell 3.3% m/m and 30% y/y, which is 13th consecutive y/y decline and even worse than July’s maximum. It is the first time since 2003, when August prices declined m/m, which significantly disappointed market expectations. So where is the bottom?
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Over 80% of the world’s corporate and government data resides on mainframes. Over $5 trillion worth of corporate application and data assets rely on its mainframes today. Almost 95% of Fortune 1000 companies use its Information Management System (IMS) for their most critical data management needs. More than 50 billion transactions—including financial ATM sessions, healthcare record access, tax accounts and other critical information—are running through IMS databases on a daily basis.
All these statements refer to IBM – worldwide data manager with an absolute market power. Most essential global information is directly or indirectly controlled by IBM. Summary of the Computer & Communications Industry Association’s report follows.
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Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley got it wrong in declaring the start of an economic recovery… record government spending may be forestalling another slowdown and market selloff… This is more likely a ski-jump recession, with short-term stimulus creating a bump that will ultimately lead to a more precipitous decline later
Nice move performed by Paul Tudor Jones of Jones’s Tudor Investment Corp, leading Macro hedge fund. This is one of few cases when official projections are tackled by a sophisticated investor with no direct relationship with the government.
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Bulgaria’s economy will fail to grow until 2011, lagging behind other European Union states, where most of the Balkan nation’s exports are shipped… Real estate, construction and financial services, which drove growth before the crisis, won’t be able to recover to pre-crisis levels… Recovery will have to be export driven
But what can Latvia offer? Or Lithuania with Estonia? We already now expect fast recovery in 2010. But Baltic case is much more complicated than Bulgarian. There are several short but explicit reasons.
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Both China and America are addressing bubbles by creating more bubbles and we’re just taking advantage of that. So we can’t lose… Lou said CIC was building a broad investment portfolio that includes products designed to generate both alpha and beta; to hedge against both inflation and deflation; and to provide guaranteed returns in the event of a new crisis
Now they say about that openly. Lou Jiwei, the head of Chinese sovereign wealth fund, admits the only way to defeat financial crisis is to produce another bubble economy. Controlled by few people, who serve as a monopoly, with no competition or control.
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