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
2011-06-24
36
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 Papaconstanti-nou, 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.
Which of the following is NOT true about Greece?
选项
A、Its economy is based on exports.
B、It is very likely to be the next Dubai.
C、Its people have realized their situation.
D、Its debt rating is the lowest in the euro zone.
答案
A
解析
此题是事实题。由第六段可知,希腊经济是以国内消费为主,而非依赖出口。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/P8YO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
EducationalValuesLifeisratherhecticforstudentsduringthefirstweekatNorthAmericanuniversities.However,students
BaruchSpinozawasaDutchphilosopherandreligiousthinkerwhowasbornonNovember24,1632inAmsterdam.HisfamilywasSpan
Theworld’spopulationcontinuestogrow.Therenowareabout4billionofusonearth.Thatcouldreach6billionbytheendof
WriteanarticleOfabout400wordsentitled"Piracy".Inthefirstpartofyourwritingyoushouldpresentyourthesisstate
MoviesarethemostpopularformofentertainmentformillionsofAmericans.Theygotothemovietoescapetheirnormaleveryda
TheHistoryofAmericanIndiansWhenEuropeansdiscoveredtheWesternhemisphere,theydiscoveredaraceofpeople.【1】______
A、wasresponsibleforthekillingoftheSaudiPrinceB、PlannedviolenceagainsttheSaudiroyalfamilyC、helpedSauditerrorist
ErnestHemingwaywasoneofthe20thcentury’smostimportantwriters.Hissimple,directstylegreatlyinfluencedotherwriters
In1969,theNationalWildlifeFederationbegantorecordanindexofenvironmentalqualitywhichmeasuresprogressordeclinei
In1969,theNationalWildlifeFederationbegantorecordanindexofenvironmentalqualitywhichmeasuresprogressordeclinei
随机试题
路面白色虚线实线指示实线一侧允许跨越。
政治神话(里格斯所做的定义)
在PowerPoint幻灯片浏览视图下,按住Ctrl键并拖动某页幻灯片,可以完成的操作是()。
“成交方式”栏应填()。
“进口口岸”栏应填报()。“起运国”栏应填报()。
个人客户申请开立信用证券账户和信用资金账户应向证券公司提交下列( )等材料。
动用应收账款余额控制模式进行应收账款管理可以发挥的作用有()。(2014年)
如图所示,一物体自倾角为θ的固定斜面顶端沿水平方向以v0,2v0的水平速度先后两次抛出,抛出后均落在斜面上,物体与斜面接触时速度与水平方向的夹角为ψ1,ψ2,水平距离为x1、x2,下落高度为y1、y2,则下列关系中不正确的是()。
对学生的培养及全面素质的提高,起关键作用的是教师的()。
以下关于TCP滑动窗口说法正确的是(11)。
最新回复
(
0
)