France Reports Near Zero Growth - No Recovery

Saturday, 29 December 2012 03:37 Brandon Smith


The global meltdown continues as the final quarter proves to be everything we predicted at the beginning of the year. Demand and production are flatlining in every financially vital nation in the world. This is not an isolated downturn; it is a macro-event that the mainstream is completely ignoring...

The French economy grew less than initially reported in the third quarter, signaling a recovery that may be too weak to help President Francois Hollande’s government reduce unemployment that’s at a 15-year high.

Gross domestic product rose 0.1 percent, half the pace estimated on Nov. 15, statistics institute Insee in Paris said today. Data late yesterday showed jobless claims rose for a 19th straight month in November to 3.13 million, the highest since January 1998.

“Given the poor outlook for France’s growth in the coming months, it is difficult to see an improvement in labor-market data anytime soon,” Thomas Costerg, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank in London, said in an e-mail. “For the moment, the only direction for France’s unemployment rate is up.”

The International Monetary Fund called this month for an overhaul of France’s labor market and more competition in its services sector as the economy faces a “fragile” growth outlook. Every poll leading up to last May’s presidential election listed jobs as the top priority in France, and Hollande used a visit to a wholesale food market outside Paris yesterday to pledge again that his aim is to bring down unemployment.

READ MORE HERE:
Hollande Jobs Pledge Undermined by Weak French Recovery: Economy - Bloomberg


France Reports Near Zero Growth - No Recovery