03/07/2025

BIZ & FINANCE THURSDAY | JULY 3, 2025

FOLLOW

ON INSTAGRAM

18

Malaysian Paper

@thesundaily @t

Challenge to dollar supremacy a long way off

Lucrative side hustles of Austria’s far-right lawmakers cause stir VIENNA: Fresh details on the lucrative side hustles of Austrian lawmakers caused a stir in the country on Tuesday, with far-right MPs facing mockery for topping the rich list despite touting themselves as the party of the ordinary people. Austria’s Parliament published the data after a deadline for mandatory income declarations had expired. Data from 2024 revealed that seven lawmakers from the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) pulled in more than €12,000 (RM59,600) a month from outside activities, in addition to their monthly salary of around €10,000. Working as notaries or lawyers, far-right MPs had 1.9 additional sources of income on average, exceeding the number of side gigs held by their parliamentary colleagues. Compared to the FPOe, conservative, Green and liberal lawmakers altogether had half as many high earners in Parliament. “There must be more hours in a day for these gentlemen than in ours,” one reader quipped in the comments section of the Standard daily. “The party of the little people? More like a club for the elite,” editorialist Barbara Toth wrote on X. Nico Marchetti, general secretary of the ruling conservative OeVP party, slammed the far right which “presents itself as the voice of the ordinary people”, while it is part of “the system” it criticises. The FPOe dismissed the criticism, arguing that focus should be placed on the “government, which is responsible for record debt, high inflation, rising unemployment and three consecutive years of recession”, rather than the legal side gigs of some of its lawmakers. Earlier this year, local media revealed fresh details of an investigation by prosecutors into the luxurious lifestyle of former FPOe leader Heinz-Christian Strache, which the party had partially funded. – AFP UK music tourism hits record £10b in 2024 LONDON: Music tourism contributed a record £10 billion (RM58 billion) to the UK economy last year as fans flocked to live shows by Taylor Swift and other big acts, industry data from UK Music revealed Tuesday. “Charli XCX, Bruce Springsteen, Sam Fender and Dua Lipa helped lure a record 23.5 million music tourists to concerts and festivals,” UK Music added. Both figures were up by around one quarter on 2023, while the vast majority of“tourists”were fans travelling from other areas of the UK. “Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour helped drive the 2024 figures to a new high with legions of overseas tourists coming to the UK to see the stars and enjoy concerts and festivals including Glastonbury,” it added. UK Music said this year’s Oasis reunion tour, starting in Cardiff tomorrow, “will hopefully continue the success story”. Looking at the total 2024 spending, £5.1 billion came from music tourists attending concerts and festivals in the UK, including the cost of tickets, travel and accommodation, the study showed. “A further £4.9 billion was spent indirectly through the value chain, including costs such as fencing and security,” it said. UK Music noted that “local music ecosystems stimulate the economy by boosting footfall, powering the hospitality and retail sectors, and creating vibrant places that attract residents, visitors, and investment”. Its chief executive Tom Kiehl warned however of “a number of challenges” facing the sector, “such as the rising cost of touring for artists and the threat of closure looming over venues, studios and other music spaces”. – AFP

“I don’t see ... a sort of a major shift at the moment,” he said, arguing that any reserve currency had to offer a supply of safe assets into the market that can be used for purposes of collateral and security. Bank of Korea Governor Rhee Chang-yong said the prospect of a long-term shift of the dollar sentiment was a subject of discussion for some even as they retained their dollar holdings. “It looks like people are talking about it. But at this moment they keep the dollar share while increasing their hedging ratio,” he told the panel. Lagarde told a recent audience in Berlin that there was an opening for a “global euro moment”, if it earned it. She said Europe would need to build a deeper, more liquid capital market, bolster its legal foundations and underpin its commitment to open trade with security capabilities. While the dollar’s current share of international reserves is the lowest it has been in decades, its 58% tally is still well above the euro’s 20% share. – Reuters

“(But) for a major change to occur it will take a lot of time and a lot of effort,” she told a panel with her US, British, Japanese and Korean counterparts. She noted that “investors are looking at options” in a climate characterised by uncertainty and unpredictability and that there was evidence that the euro was benefiting from that. “It’s not going to happen just like that overnight. It never did historically,” she said. “But there is clearly something that has been broken. Whether it is fixable, or whether it is going to continue to be broken – I think the jury’s out.” Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda also noted that any significant change would depend on structural reforms. “It’s to a certain extent up to what areas like Europe or China will do in terms of improving the efficiency or convenience of their currencies,” he said, citing as an example the efforts at capital market integration in the euro zone. Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said any change to the dollar’s status was a long way off.

SINTRA: There is no prospect of a major challenge to the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency of choice any time soon, central bankers gathered for an annual conference in the Portuguese resort of Sintra said on Tuesday. President Donald Trump’s unpredictable economic, trade and security policies have spurred questions over whether the US currency, which accounts for 58% of the world’s reserves, can remain at the centre of the global monetary system. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, who has argued the euro could over time become an alternative to the dollar if Europe’s currency zone enacted necessary reforms, said 2025 could in future be viewed as “pivotal” in this respect. o Greenback accounts for 58% of global reserves vs 20% for euro

A ferry carrying passengers of cruise ship MSC transfers to Santorini. – REUTERSPIC

Greece starts charging tourist tax on cruises ATHENS: Greece on Tuesday began charging a tax on island cruise ships, the latest European effort to tackle soaring visitor numbers to the continent’s most popular destinations. Italian authorities in Venice, one of the world’s top tourist destinations, last year introduced payments for day visitors, who must pay an access fee of €5 on certain days.

too small to receive multiple cruise ships at once. Tourism, and the cruise industry in particular, is booming in Greece. Cruise ship passenger numbers surged 13.2% last year to 7.9 million, according to the Hellenic Ports Association, which predicts the trend will continue. Mykonos, known as a party destination for international jet-setters, received nearly 1.3 million visitors last year, up 8.4% from the previous year. Perched on a volcano, Santorini received more than 1.3 million passengers last year, up four percent. The island last year limited cruise ship arrivals to 8,000 passengers per day, yet on the first day of the tax, four ships with around 8,400 passengers were scheduled to dock in Santorini, according to port authority figures. – AFP

Cruise ships docking at the popular islands of Santorini and Mykonos will pay €20 (RM100) per passenger. “In accordance with the law, the tax will be applied in Santorini, Mykonos and other islands in lesser measures,” a Finance Ministry spokesman told AFP. Cruise ships to smaller islands will pay a tax of €5 per passenger, according to the new regulations. Greece hopes to bring in up to €50 million a year with the tax, which will apply during the high tourism season, from June 1 to Sept 30. Greece adopted the legislation last year in an effort to curb soaring tourist numbers to often-overcrowded destinations, the latest country in Europe to take such measures.

In Spain, the government has cracked down on illegal short-term tourist rentals, with sites like Airbnb and Booking.com ordered to take down thousands of ads amid local alarm about increasingly scarce and unaffordable housing. The hugely popular island of Ibiza in June began limiting the number of incoming tourist cars and caravans because of the increasing numbers of visitors. Locals in Barcelona and elsewhere in Spain, the world’s second most-visited country, have held protests against over-tourism. Greece plans to use the money raised to upgrade over-strained infrastructure on the islands, including their ports, which are often