French President Admits Country will miss Deficit Targets

After trying to upgrade his popularity by touring the French provinces President Hollande made a very unpopular admission.

President Francois Hollande has admitted France will miss its target on lowering the budget deficit this year.

France’s deficit will “without a doubt” be 3.7% of its output this year, he said, above the 3% he promised to cut it to during the election last year.

The 3% deficit target is also one set by the European Union – but most of the major euro nations are in breach.

The news comes as France’s economic progress was criticised by a European Central Bank board member.

“The reform course in France seems to have floundered,” Germany’s Jens Weidmann said.

“The crisis that we are facing is a crisis of confidence, and this confidence cannot be gained if we postpone the tackling of the root causes of the crisis,” Mr Weidmann said, referring to France, Italy and Cyprus as countries that still face tough financial situations.

The German central banker has suggested a political way out of the crisis instead of looking at the ECB for answers.

via BBC

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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