Public Intelligence

Increasing public spending had contributed to a substantial deterioration of public finances in Cyprus over recent years. To address fiscal imbalances, the government introduced an initial set of fiscal reform’s in late 2012. However, additional measures are needed to ensure the sustainability of public finances. The size of the necessary adjustment will depend, among other things, on the magnitude of spillovers from financial sector restructuring.

Since the fourth review, the situation in Greece has taken a turn for the worse, with the economy increasingly adjusting through recession and related wage-price channels, rather than through structural reform driven increases in productivity. The authorities have also struggled to meet their policy commitments against these headwinds. For the purpose of the debt sustainability assessment, a revised baseline has been specified, which takes into account the implications of these developments for future growth and for likely policy outcomes. It has been extended through 2030 to fully capture long term growth dynamics, and possible financing implications.

Though horrified by those alleged crimes, the French press and political elite on Monday seemed perhaps more scandalized still by the images of Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s brusque treatment by the New York police, and his exposure in the American media. “I found that image to be incredibly brutal, violent and cruel,” the former justice minister Elisabeth Guigou told France-Info radio on Monday, referring to widely published photographs of a beleaguered-looking Mr. Strauss-Kahn, handcuffed and led by several New York police officers. “I am happy that we do not have the same judicial system.” As justice minister, Ms. Guigou, now a parliamentarian, oversaw the passage of a law prohibiting the publication of photographs of handcuffed criminal suspects.

The defendant engaged in oral sexual conduct and anal sexual conduct with another person by forcible compulsion; the defendant attempted to engage in sexual intercourse with another person by forcible compulsion; the defendant subjected another person to sexual contact by forcible compulsion; the defendant restrained another person; the defendant subjected another person to sexual contact without the latter’s consent; and in that the defendant intentionally, and for no legitimate purpose, forcibly touched the sexual and other intimate parts of another person for the purpose of degrading and abusing such person, and for the purpose of gratifying the defendant’s sexual desire.

The French political bigshot who heads the International Monetary Fund was arrested for allegedly sodomizing a Manhattan hotel maid today — getting hauled off an Air France flight just moments before takeoff from Kennedy Airport, police sources told The Post. Three Port Authority detectives pulled Dominique Strauss-Kahn from the plane’s first-class cabin just two minutes before it was due to depart for Paris, the sources said. Strauss-Kahn, 62, was turned over to NYPD officers from the Midtown South precinct, and the case is being investigated by the Special Victims Unit.

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In the context of rapidly increasing inter-dependence across national economies and shifting economic weight of different regions, the crisis has been a wake-up call for putting in place a global financial and monetary system that reduces the frequency and severity of crisis, underpinned by greater multilateralism in policymaking. Global cooperation and coordination on a wide set of issues, ranging from crisis prevention to regulatory and prudential reform and to provision of financial support, is critical for responding to the challenges presented by financial fragilities, external imbalances, weak fiscal positions and rising debt levels, and volatile capital flows.

This report responds to the request of the G-20 leaders for the IMF to: “…prepare a report for our next meeting [June 2010] with regard to the range of options countries have adopted or are considering as to how the financial sector could make a fair and substantial contribution toward paying for any burden associated with government interventions to repair the banking system.”

The bonds of so-called peripheral euro-region nations, including Greece, Ireland and Spain, fell relative to benchmark German bunds after Greece’s credit rating was cut to junk by Moody’s Investors Service. German government bonds rose as investors shunned all but the safest assets following the downgrade and Citigroup Inc. said Greek debt will now be removed from some indexes. The ranking was lowered four steps to Ba1 from A3 by Moody’s, which cited “substantial” risks to economic growth from austerity measures tied to a 110 billion-euro ($134.5 billion) aid package from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The lower rating “incorporates a greater, albeit, low risk of default,” the ratings company said in a statement yesterday in London. The outlook is stable, it said.

The sharp increase in fiscal deficits and public debt in most advanced and several developing economies has raised concerns about the sustainability of public finances and highlighted the need for a significant adjustment over the medium term. This paper assesses the usefulness of fiscal rules in supporting fiscal consolidation, discusses the design and implementation of rules based on a new data base spanning the whole Fund membership, and explores the fiscal framework that could be adopted as countries emerge from the crisis.

The Obama administration is pressing its European counterparts to act more quickly and decisively to contain the Greek financial crisis before its fallout undermines a recovery in Europe and spreads across the Atlantic to the U.S. After a Friday morning conference call among finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven—the U.S., Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Britain and Italy—President Barack Obama spoke by phone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to reinforce that message. “We agreed on the importance of a strong policy response by the affected countries and a strong financial response from the international community,” Mr. Obama told reporters.

Greek legislators have defied public outrage at a draconian austerity plan, approving cutbacks as police battled hundreds of protesters outside Parliament. Amid new global market turmoil, Parliament approved the plan – needed in exchange for a mass EU-IMF bail-out – a day after three bank workers died in a firebomb attack on the sidelines of huge protest marches in Athens.

Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, emphasized the need for global coordination of financial regulation in an April 26 address at the Council on Foreign Relations. Trichet argued for unified international accounting and capital standards for banks, as well as more say for industrializing countries in structuring global financial markets. Emerging-market economies have become “a source of strength for the world economy,” he said, and the economic crisis has “led to a clear recognition of their increased economic importance and to their full integration into the institutions of global governance.” Trichet declined to comment about ongoing negotiations over the IMF-EU joint bailout for Greece and said he was “confident that they will be concluded soon and rightly.” In comparing European and U.S. views on financial reform, he said the biggest disparities included the greater influence of investment banks in U.S. policymaking and vastly different accounting practices between European and U.S. companies. “We need accounting rules that will be the same on both sides of the Atlantic,” he said.

The euro zone’s decision to include the International Monetary Fund in any Greek rescue plan extends the Fund’s influence to a large swath of the world economy—and gives a political boost to its managing director. Over the past two years, the IMF has worked with the European Union to bail out EU members, including Latvia and Hungary. Now it is clear that the IMF mandate reaches also to Portugal, Spain and other troubled members of the 16-nation euro zone, said Domenico Lombardi, a Brookings Institution expert on the IMF. “Any possible (economic) contagion to Portugal and Spain (from Greece) should be under control,” because of IMF and euro-zone involvement, he said.

The global economic crisis has left “deep scars” in the fiscal balances of the world’s advanced economies, which should begin to rein in spending next year as the recovery continues, the No. 2 official at the International Monetary Fund said Sunday. In a speech at the China Development Forum in Beijing, John Lipsky, the deputy managing director of the I.M.F., offered a grim prognosis for the world’s wealthiest nations, which find themselves at a level of indebtedness not seen since the aftermath of World War II. For the United States, “a higher public savings rate will be required to ensure long-term fiscal sustainability,” Mr. Lipsky said.

A basic legal framework for combating money laundering and terrorist financing is in place in the UAE, but that framework needs further strengthening in a number of areas. The AML law needs to be amended to expand the range of predicate offences and to provide greater powers for the financial intelligence unit. The FIU should also increase its own staffing so that it may operate as an autonomous unit, rather than relying on the resources of the Central Bank’s Supervision Department and other regulatory agencies.

An assessment of the anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) regime of Italy was onducted based on the Forty Recommendations 2003 and the Nine Special Recommendations on Terrorist Financing 2001 of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and prepared using the AML/CFT Methodology 2004. The assessment considered the laws, regulations and other materials supplied by the authorities, and information obtained by the assessment team during its mission April 4–20, 2005, and subsequently.

The financial sector in Liechtenstein provides primarily wealth-management services, including banking, trust, other fiduciary services, investment management, and life insurance-based products. There has been significant expansion recently in the non-banking areas, particularly investment undertakings and insurance. Approximately 90 percent of Liechtenstein’s financial services business is provided to nonresidents, many attracted to Liechtenstein by the availability of discrete and flexible legal structures, strict bank secrecy, and favorable tax arrangements, within a stable and well-regulated environment.

This assessment of observance of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendations for anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) has been completed as part of an evaluation of Panama’s observance of regulatory standards for the financial sector.

Criminal activity in the Czech Republic that generates major sources of illegal proceeds is comparable to criminal activity in other countries in transition. Economic crime (e.g., fraud and asset stripping) that is linked to the privatization process is still a major concern. The authorities also mentioned tax offences as significant crime areas. Organized crime involving drug trafficking and counterfeiting of goods is also active in the Czech Republic with links to the region and Asia.

This assessment of the anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) regime of Bermuda is based on the Forty Recommendations 2003 and the Nine Special recommendations on Terrorist Financing 2001 of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). It was prepared using the AML/CFT assessment Methodology 2004, as updated in June 2006. The assessment team considered all the materials supplied by the authorities, the information obtained on-site during their mission from May 7 to 23, 2007, and other information subsequently provided by the authorities soon after the mission. During the mission, the assessment team met with officials and representatives of all relevant government agencies and the private sector.

Using the occasion of the Spring Meetings-on April 22, 2006-Moldovan Finance Minister Michai Pop requested FAD’s assistance to review the authorities draft strategic plan for a comprehensive modernization of the State Tax Inspectorate (STI). The mission has been informed that the government intends to finalize and adopt the modernization plan by the end of September 2006.

This Joint Staff Advisory Note (JSAN) reviews Sierra Leone’s Second Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP-H) covering the period 2009-2012, The PRSP-I1 examines achievements and lessons learned under the first PRSP, analyzes challenges and constraints in the economy, and lays out the strategic priorities for accelerating growth and reducing Poverty.