首页
登录
职称英语
Anyone believing the global economic crisis to be over should have taken a l
Anyone believing the global economic crisis to be over should have taken a l
游客
2024-12-28
27
管理
问题
Anyone believing the global economic crisis to be over should have taken a look around Europe this week. Desperate to revive his country’s feeble economy, Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan promised $6 billion worth of savings in a budget aimed at taming the country’s stubborn deficit. The plan is his second budget this year, and Ireland’s harshest in decades. In a mini-budget announced a couple of hours earlier, Britain’s Alistair Darling unveiled his government’s latest plan to fix the U.K.’s broken economy, including a punitive tax on bankers’ bonuses, a rise in social security contributions and a cap on public-sector workers’ pay.
In other parts of Europe, things are looking even worse. Shares on the Greek stock market have fallen 9% over the past two days. The parlous state of Greece’s public finances has prompted credit-rating agency Fitch to lower the country’s debt rating to BBB+, the lowest in the euro zone, Europe’s single-currency region. Further blows could follow: rival agencies Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s have threatened similar moves in recent days.
Two weeks after Dubai stunned investors by requesting a standstill on $60 billion in liabilities belonging to its main corporate arm, Greece’s downgrade is yet more evidence that the economic crisis is far from over. For countries left to fill gaping holes in their public finances exposed by the meltdown, there’s plenty of pain still to come.
Nowhere more so than Greece. Years of debt-fueled consumption and lax fiscal policies have left the country drowning in red ink. National debt is expected to rise to 125% of GDP in 2010, the highest in the euro zone. "If you want an example of a political elite that thought membership of the euro zone was a panacea," says Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform in London, "you don’t need to look further than Greece. They’re in very serious trouble."
Getting out of it won’t be easy. Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, which sets interest rates for the euro zone’s 16 countries, urged the country on Monday, Dec. 7, to take "courageous" steps to tackle the crisis. Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou, part of the socialist government that won power in the country last October, duly pledged to do "whatever is required" to shore up the country’s finances. Key to the recovery plan: slashing Greece’s budget deficit next year from 12.7%—more than four times the level allowed under E.U. rules—to 9.1%.
While that has triggered revenue-raising measures like a crackdown on tax evasion, there’s little sign of the deep spending cuts the country needs to rebalance its books. What’s more, reviving growth will mean shifting from an economy founded on domestic consumption to one driven by exports. "That’s going to be extremely difficult, given that [the Greeks have] allowed their cost competitiveness within the euro zone to erode massively," says Tilford. "We’re still seeing big increases in Greece’s wages." Contrast that with Ireland. Since losing its edge in Europe—rising labor costs helped the country’s share of euro-zone exports fall one-fifth between 2001 and 2008—the Irish haven’t shied from cutting their cloth in recent months. In his budget announced Dec. 9, for instance, Lenihan unleashed deeply unpopular cuts in public-sector pay that look set to trigger strike action. But when it comes to a spending squeeze of their own, says Tilford, "the Greeks are a long way from recognizing that they really have no choice." That surely irks the E.U., which is limited in the amount of help—or punishment — it can impose on Greece. Allowing the country to default, or to approach to the International Monetary Fund for emergency funds, would deal a huge blow to the credibility of the 11-year-old euro zone. Whatever financial concessions it can offer, therefore, will almost certainly come with stiff conditions. Greece may have little option but to accept. [br] Which of the following is NOT the measure taken to improve UK’s economy?
选项
A、A shift of its economy.
B、A severe tax on bankers’ bonuses.
C、A limit on public-sector workers’ pay.
D、A rise in social security contributions.
答案
A
解析
此题是事实题。由第一段可知。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3888161.html
相关试题推荐
ThisglobalmenaceispersonifiedbyawomanwhoistheStatusofLibertyandSn
Nooneshouldbeforcedtowearauniformunderanycircumstance.Uniforms
Nooneshouldbeforcedtowearauniformunderanycircumstance.Uniforms
Nooneshouldbeforcedtowearauniformunderanycircumstance.Uniforms
Nooneshouldbeforcedtowearauniformunderanycircumstance.Uniforms
Wemusthavereceivedtheletteryesterday,butitdidn’tarrive.must——shouldmus
Ifyourcarshouldneedanyattentionduringthefirst12months,takeittoan
Asglobalwarmingcontinuestobemajorconcernforthefutureofourplanet,pe
Becomeaskilledphotographer,apersonshouldhavebothmanualdexterityagood
Iwouldbesuspicioustowardanyonewhoisoperatingwayoutsidehisorherspec
随机试题
Bonfirescancauselocalizedairpollutionandannoyneighbours.Followthe
He______averyinterestingnovelatsixp.m.yesterday.A、isreadingB、werere
TheStreet-LevelSolution[A]WhenIwasgrowingup,oneo
内墙面抹灰每遍适宜厚度的表述,哪一条是错误的?()A.涂抹水泥砂浆每遍适宜厚
正常骨髓象的淋巴细胞约占有核细胞的A.10% B.40% C.30% D.
1岁半小儿,因惊厥就诊,下列各项检查中尚属正常的是A.拥抱反射阳性 B.握持反
住房抵押贷款是指贷款银行向贷款者提供大部分购房款项,购房者以稳定的收入分期向银行
某两层单建式地下车库如图,用于停放载人少于9人的小客车,设计使用年限为50年,采
“一个小丑进城胜过一打医生。”这说明情绪具有的功能是()。 A.信号功能B
肺胃阴虚喉痹,阴虚火旺,虚火上炎所致的口疮者慎用的是A.小儿化毒散 B.牛黄抱
最新回复
(
0
)