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Wednesday, February 13, 2013
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‘No thoughts on Cyprus haircut’ EU’s top economic official says heavy losses won’t be forced on investors By Elias Hazou
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HE government yesterday welcomed a statement by the EU’s top economic official that the European Commission is not working on a debt restructuring for Cyprus that would force heavy losses on investors. “We salute today’s remarks by Olli Rehn, the European Union’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner, with which he yet again clarified that there are no thoughts on a haircut of the Cypriot debt,” Deputy Government Spokesman Christos Christofides told newsmen. “This is a fundamental position of the Cyprus government, and we hail the fact that it is being lent support in such a clear way by the European Commissioner.” Rehn said that under the terms of the emerging bailout, Cypriot government debt would not be restructured to impose losses on private creditors. That should reassure private bondholders that they are not being singled out for losses by European policymakers, bolstering their confidence in buying euro zone bonds. “The European Commission is not working on any PSI option for Cyprus,” Rehn told reporters, referring to the Private Sector Involvement (PSI) that forced losses on holders of Greek debt in 2012. “Greece is a specific candidate and unique case,” he added. Crippled by exposure to
Greece, Cyprus needs in the region of €17 billion from the euro zone to recapitalise its banks and to finance the government over the next three years. That is almost as much as the whole economy produces in a year, raising doubts whether the island would ever be able to pay back the money. Rehn’s remarks were slightly more reassuring than those made by Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem. However, Rehn was less clear when asked if he would rule out the possibility of depositors in Cypriot banks losing money as part of a bailout. “The Commission’s intention is to ensure a fair burden sharing of the cost of restructuring or resolution of Cypriot banks,” Rehn told a news conference after a meeting of EU ministers. “We are working in order to find a solution that ensures both debt sustainability and financial sustainability in Cyprus,” he said. At a press conference late on Monday after chairing a meeting of euro-area finance ministers, Dijsselbloem would not rule out a PSI for Cyprus. Despite repeated questions as to whether he excluded such a haircut, Dijsselbloem would not commit to an answer, even when a journalist observed that this vagueness could trigger a run on Cypriot banks. The Dutch politician dodged the question, saying only that the Eurogroup meeting
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President Demetris Christofias addressing an event yesterday to mark 100 years since the birth of the island’s first president, Archbishop Makarios III (CNA)
Tokyo chef’s menu leaves diners soiled for choice FRENCH-style seafood was always the big seller at Toshio Tanabe’s Tokyo restaurant, but the chef for many years had a secret passion - soil. Now his long interest in soil cuisine has finally culminated in a feast he’s been offering to customers the last few weeks, starting with an amuse bouche of soil soup and ending with a soil sorbet. “Man didn’t create the sea, the air or the soil. They’re simply all part of nature, and in a sense they are alive in their own right,” said Tanabe. “What I’m trying to do is reflect that feeling in food.” A professional bantamweight boxer in his youth, Tanabe turned his hand to cooking in his twenties and left to
train in France. For the last 20 years he has run a French restaurant in downtown Tokyo, and over the last eight has been slowly introducing his customers to samples of soil-inspired cuisine.
TOUGH WORK At first, though, the search for a clean and chemical-free main ingredient was tough work. “I had to go all over the place to find soil, into the mountains and places like that. Places where there was no farming,” he said. “Then of course I had to dig it up from deep under the ground.” Now Tanabe sources his soil through a Tokyo-based supplier who delivers
about a kilo (2.2 lbs) of dirt a day, prechecked for harmful substances. Previously, limited supplies had meant he could only serve an occasional soil dish or two. After the dirt arrives, he lightly cooks it to release the flavour, then runs it through a sieve to remove any stray grains of sand. The six-course soil extravaganza starts with an amuse bouche of soil soup, served with the merest fleck of dirtengrained truffle, and ends with soil sorbet and a sweet dirt gratin. But Tanabe’s pride and joy is the “soil surprise”, a dirt-covered potato ball with a truffle centre. The feast is not especially cheap, running to 10,000 yen ($110) a diner.