首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Anyone believing the global economic crisis to be over should have taken a look around Europe this week. Desperate to revive his
Anyone believing the global economic crisis to be over should have taken a look around Europe this week. Desperate to revive his
admin
2012-02-24
19
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.
What can be inferred from the passage about the E.U.?
选项
A、It can do nothing to stop the dangerous situation in euro zone.
B、It has played a limited role in economic matters in euro zone.
C、It has played an important role in economic matters in euro zone.
D、It has played an important role in keeping its members out of financial crisis.
答案
B
解析
此题是推断题。由最后一段可知,欧盟的作用是有限的。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/LziO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
IntheAustralianstateofNewSouthWales,agovernmentsponsorsurveyrevealedsomeshockingstatisticsregarding【1】_
Practicallyspeaking,theartisticmaturingofthecinemawasthesingle-handedachievementofDavidW.Griffith(1875-1948).Be
ABetterChoiceThenexttimeyouoverhearafriendorco-workerchatteringexcitedlyaboutSOHO,don’tassumethattheyare
Haveyoueverthoughtofthesimilaritiesbetweenthecinemaandthetheatre?Thecinemahaslearntagreatdealfromthetheat
Alinguistic______referstoawordorexpressionthatisprohibitedbythe"polite"societyfromgeneraluse.
Greece,economically,isintheblack.Withverylittletoexportotherthansuchfarmproductsastobacco,cottonandfruit,th
ItissaidthatGeorgeWashingtonwasoneofthefirsttorealizehowimportantthebuildingofcanalswouldbetothenation’s
Lastyear,whenPresidentGeorgeW.Bushannouncedthatfederalfundscouldbeusedtosupportresearchonhumanembryonicstem
Prefer(i)Preferisnormallyfollowedbyto,notthan:"1prefercoffeetotea","Shepreferredsewingtoknitting","Wepre
Prefer(i)Preferisnormallyfollowedbyto,notthan:"1prefercoffeetotea","Shepreferredsewingtoknitting","Wepre
随机试题
比较实际进度与计划进度的S形曲线,可以明显看出()。
下列关于商业银行注册资本的说法,错误的是()。
关于事业部制组织形式的说法,正确的是()。
甲公司与客户订立一项合同,约定转让软件许可证、实施安装服务并在2年期间内提供未明确规定的软件更新和技术支持(通过在线和电话方式)。合同明确规定,作为安装服务的一部分,软件将作重大定制以增添重要的新功能,从而使软件能够与客户使用的其他定制软件应用程序相对接。
在集体合同上签字盖章的工会代表、职工代表和用人单位属于()
培训激励制度的主要内容包括()。
在社区共同生活中,居民会逐渐形成与其他成员相似的行为或观念,能够与他人沟通,认同他人并得到他人的支持与认同。这体现了社区的()。
学生运用已学会的公式解决同一类型的问题运用的思维类型是()。
设m,n∈R,若直线l:mx+ny-1=0与x轴相交于点A,与y轴相交于点B,且坐标原点O到直线l的距离为,则△AOB的面积S的最小值为().
HappinessIsaJourneyThereisnowaytohappiness.Happinessistheway./Sotreasureeverymomentyouhave./Don’twast
最新回复
(
0
)