French Consumer Recession Worse Than Italy's; Euro Area Economy in Trouble
Author:
Walter Kurtz
Location: Tokyo
Date: 2013-04-01
As discussed earlier
the French economy continues to struggle. The nation's consumer
recession is now thought to be worse than Italy's. Markit (Trevor Balchin): - “France has overtaken Italy as having the worst performing retail sector of the three largest euro area economies. Sales fell at a survey-record pace, as did employment. Italy registered another steep drop in sales, while German retailers witnessed a flat trend in March.”
French economic output data suggests that the GDP growth -
which has been lagging the Output PMI Index - will be in the red for
a good portion of 2013.
WSJ: - Mr. Hollande's government responded to the weaker economy in 2012 by raising taxes by €7 billion ($9 billion) to try to limit the damage to public finances. If the government hadn't done this, along with a smaller effort to curb public spending, the deficit would have increased above 5.5% of output, finance minister Pierre Moscovici said in a radio interview Friday. Another €20 billion of taxes have since been introduced for 2013.
Retail sales indicator in France now points to conditions
that are worse than during the 2008 recession.
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