Баранчиком смотрит...

Баранчиком смотрит...

Bruxelas aprova garantia de 20 mil milhões à banca portuguesa

A Comissão Europeia deu hoje luz verde à garantia de 20 mil milhões de euros que o Governo português avançou para os empréstimos dos bancos portugueses. A Comissária Europeia Neelie Kroes considera que a medida não distorce a concorrência no sector.

A Comissão Europeia deu hoje luz verde à garantia de 20 mil milhões de euros que o Governo português avançou para os empréstimos dos bancos portugueses. A Comissária Europeia Neelie Kroes considera que a medida não distorce a concorrência no sector. Em comunicado citado pela Bloomberg, Bruxelas diz que a medida do Governo português não viola as regra da União Europeia, no que diz respeito ás ajudas de Estado.
As garantias de 20 mil milhões de euros avançadas pelo Governo português estão já disponíveis e os maiores bancos portugueses avançaram já que estão a ponderar a sua utilização, de modo a emitirem dívida de médio e longo prazo para financiarem a concessão de crédito à economia portuguesa. O presidente do BES, Ricardo Salgado, avançou mesmo que o banco vai “com certeza” recorrer a esta garantia, apesar de ter as necessidades de financiamento para 2009 garantidas. “Depois de intensas trocas de informação com as autoridades portuguesas, as garantias são agora uma ferramenta apropriada para aumentar a confiança dos investidores sem criar distorções no mercado”, afirma Neelie Kroes, Comissária da Concorrência, em comunicado. Estas garantias, em caso de não cumprimento no pagamento dos empréstimos, prevêem a entrada do Estado no capital dos bancos. Bruxelas já deu luz verde aos pacotes de ajuda à banca delineados pelo Reino Unido, Suécia, Alemanha, Dinamarca e Irlanda. Foram já vários os países europeus (França, Alemanha, Espanha, Áustria, Holanda, Grécia, Finlândia e Portugal) a avançarem com pacotes de ajuda à banca, que entre garantias e injecções de capital, orçam já em 1,42 biliões de euros. 

Financial crisis shakes the Kremlin

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

BERLIN: President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia was supposed to have given his first State of the Union address a week ago. It was long overdue and eagerly awaited, especially since Medvedev had been making the rounds of several European cities since taking office last May to tout Russia's new foreign policy. In Berlin and in the French city of Évian, Medvedev had set out his proposals for a new European security system. While the proposals had a polemical ring to them, Medvedev's way of presenting them showed Russia's new confidence based on petrodollars and reserves of over $500 billion. As the short Georgia-Russia war of August showed, Moscow was not going to let NATO or the United States dominate security policy in its own backyard. Even as the text of Medvedev's State of the Union address was being finalized, the event was postponed. Russia watchers say the global meltdown - which Prime Minister Vladimir Putin so confidently insisted last month would not affect Russia - shook the Kremlin. It has wiped out vast riches of the oligarchs and reduced the reserves to $300 billion. Medvedev called off the address. Take Gazprom. Its chairman, Alexei Miller, recently predicted that Gazprom would become the world's biggest company in terms of market capitalization. But now, the giant energy company, which borrowed heavily to finance prestige projects at the expense of modernizing the energy infrastructure and putting new fields into production, is seeking fresh money. "Gazprom's acquisitions were based on the premise of high oil prices," said Anders Aslund, a Russian expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "Russia's exports last year amounted to over $500 billion, of which $400 billion were from commodities. The fall in commodity prices and the drying up of new credit is a real shock to the Kremlin and the oligarchs," said Aslund. Of course, the Kremlin will not allow Gazprom, one of its most important strategic assets, to default. But analysts say Gazprom will be forced to abandon some of its big projects, including the Russian-Italian South Stream pipeline that is supposed to link Russia with the Balkans by a pipeline under the Black Sea. "Who is going to finance this $20 billion project?" said Aslund. Other big investments, particularly social ones - pensions and education, housing The Kremlin played the remaining oligarchs against one another in order to bring them under control. As a consequence, they refrained from dabbling in politics, debating economic modernization, investing in philanthropic programs or promoting civil society. The financial fallout is far from over for Russia. The most serious crisis is looming in the provinces. There, hundreds of smaller banks, some adequately capitalized, others not, are facing difficulties. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development says these banks have been crucial for lending to small and medium-size businesses, especially manufacturing, and creating a propertied class by extending mortgages.

Aslund says a massive political vacuum could open up now that the oligarchs are in financial straits and the Kremlin has misjudged the long-term effects of the global meltdown. "It is too early to say who will fill this vacuum, but we must not ignore a growing middle class," said Aslund. Others say Russia is at a juncture. "This crisis will show whether the system, which has become so inflexible, will be able to modernize," said Petrov. "If not, it will become more and more inefficient and be replaced by another system - evolutionary or revolutionary. So far, the Kremlin does not want to talk about it." Medvedev's State of the Union speech has, for now, been rescheduled for next week.