News/Debt Management
Trichet: economic, not monetary, reform of EMU necessary
ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet calls for broader economic reforms to mend Europe’s Economic Monetary Union (EMU)
Portuguese rating takes double-notch beating
Standard & Poor’s downgrades long-term rating to A- and short-term rating to A-2 on concerns over deteriorating macroeconomic environment, credit default spreads stretch further
Greece’s $40 billion bailout an improvement, but issues remain
Markets soothed as firm details of Greek rescue plan are announced, eurozone will provide €30 billion at discounted 5% rate for year forward, analysts less convinced
Jilted bondholders can attack Argentine central bank’s assets: US court
US judge decrees central bank and government one entity and breaks dam guarding assets from unpaid creditors; central bank expected to appeal ruling
Icesave casts pall over Iceland’s credit outlook
Ratings agency Moody’s kicks its outlook on Iceland down to negative on intractable Icesave dispute, change leaves Icelandic bonds hovering just above junk status
British bonds rest on “a bed of nitroglycerine”: Pimco chief
Head of biggest bond fund sees investors penalising gilts as British attachment to quantitative easing stirs worry that government seeks to inflate debt away
Russian central bank “lacks capacity” to handle assets
Russian sovereign fund management chief says new agency will take debt and asset responsibilities over from central bank, Russian reserve stash severely depleted by financial crisis
ECB in about-turn on collateral rules
Move reflects concern over Greece; Trichet says graded haircut system set to be introduced
UK debt management official parries demand fears
Co-head of policy and markets says she is confident that market for gilts deep and liquid enough to withstand end of QE
Sovereign risk worries overstated: panel
Debt experts from Bank of Italy, National Bank of Denmark and French debt agency point to reassuring signs of continuing life in the sovereign debt markets
The end is nigh for the eurozone over Greece
Economists Geoffrey Wood and Charles Dumas say the Greek debt crisis is set to tear asunder Europe’s poorly built Economic and Monetary Union, split over IMF bailout
Portugal suffers downgrade
Sovereign debt marked down a notch by Fitch; move eaxcerbates eurozone tensions
Only the IMF can save Greece: Berlin
German government backs away from a European bailout for debt-ridden Greece, Fund rescue looks increasingly likely
Major economies must heed Greece lesson: Carmen Reinhart
Co-author of This Time is Different warns sovereigns on debt sustainability
US, UK on the road to a downgrade: Moody’s
If the US and Britain cannot repair their balance sheets, the burden of servicing debt could cause them to lose AAA ratings, agency says
We must return to global bond markets: Malaysia’s Zeti
Bank Negara Malaysia governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz says the central bank has encouraged government to sell bills to foreign investors to keep name prominent
Argentine governor clings on to job as politicians splinter
Argentine Senate postpones vote on rejecting new governor Mercedes Marcó del Pont to next Wednesday after opposition factions disagree
Weber signals ECB could relax debt rules
Comments come after Austrian governor deemed power of rating agencies unacceptable; paves way for ECB to accept Greek debt even if downgraded
Austria’s Nowotny: power of rating agencies unacceptable
National Bank of Austria’s Ewald Nowotny says agencies’ role in fate of Greece too great
Greece not looking to bond markets for now: debt chief
Greece’s new head of public debt management says the country will not rush to tap sovereign debt markets; austerity package with extra cuts sends yields plummeting
High debt heralds new rate policy: UK shadow chancellor
George Osborne says high level of public debt will prompt reappraisal monetary policy
Fed is investigating Goldman, hedge funds: Bernanke
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke says the central bank is looking into cross-currency swaps carried out by Goldman Sachs alleged to have helped Greece hide the extent of its debt
Rogoff predicts wave of sovereign defaults
Greece will not be the only country to face threat of bankruptcy, ex-IMF chief economist Kenneth Rogoff warns
Greece dumps debt management chief
General manager of treasury and global markets at National Bank of Greece named new head