French Fin Min Says Economy Might Beat 0.4% Target

Economic growth in France may exceed the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) 0.4 percent target this year, finance minister Michel Sapin told CNBC over the weekend.

“The last figures for the third-quarter are figures that fill me with trust. This year, France will reach the 0.4 percent [target], maybe it will actually overcome it a little bit,” he said on the sidelines of the G-20 summit.
Gross domestic product (GDP) in Europe’s second-largest economy grew 0.3 percent on quarter, a one-year high, during the July-September period. The upbeat report came after the economy contracted in the previous quarter, leading it to be dubbed the “sick man of Europe”.

Still, 0.4 percent growth is not sufficient in the long run, he warned. The OECD projects France will expand at 1 percent in 2015, which Sapin says won’t be enough to deliver tangible gains.

“Even with a 1 – 1.5 percent growth rate, which we hope for very swiftly, we will not be able to decrease unemployment and rebalance our public finances. Structural reforms and appropriate fiscal and structural policy investments are what will allow us to find in France, and in Europe, the growth rate we need to solve the crisis,” he said.

via CNBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza