French public debt will reach 119.8% of national output in 2020 because of the additional cost of a second lockdown in response to the coronavirus pandemic, compared with the 117.5% previously forecast, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told Le Parisien newspaper in an interview.
The French government has downwardly revised its gross domestic product forecast for 2020, with the aim of taking into account the impact of the latest coronavirus-related restrictions. The eurozone's second-largest economy is expected to contract 11% this year, the economy minister Bruno Le Maire said Friday in an interview with radio station France Inter. The previous forecast of the French government was for a 10% contraction.
--France's third-quarter GDP grew 18.2% on the quarter and fell 4.3% on the year. --GDP data for the second quarter was revised up slightly to a 13.7% quarter-on-quarter drop. --The rebound in 3 Q was broad-based across sectors.
France's economy rebounded in the third quarter, recovering from its biggest contraction on record in the second quarter due to the lockdown enforced to limit the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The eurozone's second-biggest economy grew 18.2% during the third quarter, following a revised 13.7% decline in the second quarter, French statistics agency Insee said in a first estimate for the period. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had forecast a 15.0% expansion.
The French economy will shrink in fourth quarter due to the second wave of new coronavirus infections in the country, Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Thursday. Speaking at a conference on climate change, Villeroy also said that the drop in gross domestic product should be less severe than in first and second quarters.
* Euro STOXX 600 down 2.8% to five-month low. * Germany and France prepare to announce restrictions. * Wall Street futures point to losses. * Euro down 0.6% versus dollar. * Currency market volatility jumps before U.S. election. * Graphic: 2020 asset performance http://tmsnrt.rs/2yaDPgn. * Graphic: World FX rates in 2020 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh. By Tom Wilson.
European stock futures dropped to a fresh five-month low on Wednesday after a report France was mulling a month-long national lockdown to combat a surge in coronavirus infections.
The euro fell against the dollar
on Wednesday after a media report that France's government is
leaning toward reinstating a national lockdown to curb a
resurgence in coronavirus infections.
France's unemployment rate in the third quarter fell 11.5% over the previous quarter, as economic activity picked up amid an easing of coronavirus restrictions, the country's Ministry of Labour said Tuesday. In the third quarter, a total of 3.673 million job seekers in metropolitan France registered with Pole emploi, a French governmental agency which logs unemployed people. On a year-on-year basis, however, the unemployment rate went up 9.5% in 3 Q.
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