Headlines

Ireland’s government Tuesday set out its program for life after austerity in the form of a five-year plan that will see some tax cuts, as well as increases in spending that may include pay raises for public-sector workers, The Wall Street Journal reported. In October, the government declared an end to seven years of austerity, outlining small cuts to income taxes and some increases in spending in its budget for 2015. Delivering his spring statement to lawmakers, Minister of Finance Michael Noonan promised more of the same in succeeding years.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of Greece said on Tuesday that he might resort to calling a public referendum on any deal with the country’s international creditors if the package seems to go beyond the political mandate that brought his leftist government into power, the International New York Times reported. The statement came a day after Mr. Tsipras overhauled his negotiating team in an effort to accelerate debt talks and unlock crucial rescue funding.

Ever since the leftist-led Greek government came to power in late January, the avatar of the country’s austerity-weary public has been its outspoken, motorcycle-riding renegade finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, the International New York Times reported. On Monday, seeming to acknowledge that the rest of the eurozone has grown weary with the Varoufakis approach to debt negotiation, the Athens government announced a shake-up of the team trying to work out a plan with international creditors before the country runs out of money. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras took pains to say that Mr.

Ukraine has cleared the first hurdle in a $15bn bid to avoid financial collapse. Investors in Ukreximbank, the state-owned lender, voted on Monday to extend repayment of a bond that is included in a plan to restructure the country’s debt and shore up its fragile finances, the Financial Times reported. The deal raised hopes that Kiev will now be able to reach a deal with the rest of its creditors. Ukreximbank’s $750m bond is the first due for repayment out of 29 bonds and loans that Ukraine hopes to renegotiate over the next four years.

Cyprus's international lenders have yet to decide if recent changes to the island's insolvency law are enough to allow an outstanding review of its aid programme to be concluded, the European Central Bank said on Monday, Reuters reported. Earlier this month, lawmakers in Cyprus approved legislation governing foreclosures, paving the way for the island to join the ECB's sovereign bond-buying programme. But the ECB said no final decision had been taken as to whether the Cypriot action was enough to meet the terms of its aid-for-reform programme.

About 2,000 Ulster Bank mortgage arrears customers who have yet to engage with the bank about a possible restructuring of their loan are to receive a new communication urging them to talk to the lender, the Irish Times reported. Ulster Bank has sent a one-page note to customers with six “commitments” on how the borrowers will be treated. This includes a commitment that their homes will not be repossessed if revised repayment terms can be agreed and offers the possibility of residual debt being written off in the case of voluntary sales.

More than a fifth of Europe’s part-time workers are underemployed, while the number who have given up looking for work altogether has increased, according to official figures which underline the dire state of the labour market in the region’s most crisis-hit economies, the Financial Times reported. Across the European Union 9.8m part-time workers — or 22 per cent — worked less hours than they would have liked to last year, according to Eurostat’s annual poll of the EU labour market.

Fitch Ratings lowered Japan’s credit rating as the country continued to wrestle with staggering debt, the International New York Times reported. The rating agency said Monday that the government did not include sufficient measures in its budget to replace a sales tax increase it delayed in the current fiscal year, which ends next March. Japan’s debt, more than twice the size of its economy, is the largest among developed nations. The country has struggled to find a way to cover rising costs for health and elder care.

Vietnam's central bank will acquire all shares in a small, loss-making bank in Hanoi, a unit of Ocean Group Co, to ensure the banking system's safety, the second move in less than two months as it seeks to clean up the fragmented sector. "The State Bank has announced its compulsory purchase of all the shares owned by existing shareholders in Dai Duong (Ocean) Commercial Bank," the State Bank of Vietnam said in a statement on Saturday.

Several Chinese provincial governments have been forced to postpone bond auctions as banks balk at the low yields on offer, state media reported on Friday, highlighting the challenges of carrying out a Rmb1tn ($161bn) plan to lower financing costs for cash-strapped localities, the Financial Times reported. China’s local debt has surged since the 2008 financial crisis as regional governments borrowed to finance infrastructure projects in an effort to stimulate the economy. Economists have warned that the debt poses a risk to the banking system.