Monday, April 20, 2015

IMF chief on growth and Greece; FT editor on China

Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, talks with the FT's World Trade editor, Shawn Donnan, about the global economic recovery, Greece and the new Chinese development bank.

"There has been a huge commitment by the international community, the European partners but also the IMF and the European Central Bank to actually support the Greek economy,” Lagarde said.

"What needs to happen now is that the political views need to actually deliver the measures, the tools, the reforms that could actually reach the objectives that have been set between the international community and Greece: restore stability, improve the economy [and] make sure that one of these days Greece re-accesses the financial markets on its own and without support.”

Technical negotiations in Athens between the Greek government and staff from the IMF and European institutions were “gradually picking up”, she said. “We really hope that is going to continue to fruition so that we can move on.”

 

China is attempting to assert its position globally, but economic growth is at its slowest for six years. Lionel Barber, FT editor, who recently interviewed the Chinese premier, talks to emerging markets editor James Kynge about the pressures facing Beijing.

On Sunday the People’s Bank of China announced a move to boost lending to business by cutting its so-called the reserve requirement ratio by 1 percentage point, days after data revealed the country’s economy expanded at its slowest pace for six years in the first quarter.

The FT reports that the PBoC has only once before reduced the reserve requirement ratio by as much and that was during the depths of the financial crisis in November 2008.