PARIS (MNI) – France is working with its EMU partners to impose a
fiscal stability pact on the euro area and does not favor a two-speed
Eurozone, Budget Minister Valerie Pecresse said Tuesday.
In a television interview, Pecresse said that the “golden rule” of
eliminating budget deficits applied to all euro area member countries.
She said euro area turbulence had weakened economic growth in
France, resulting in October’s sharp rise in registered jobseekers
reported on Monday.
Pecresse rejected a call by the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development on Monday for new austerity measures to keep
the government’s deficit-reduction strategy on track.
The OECD said Monday that France had slipped into a “short,
shallow” recession and that its economy would grow by only 0.3% in 2012,
well below the budget assumption for growth of 1.0%.
France has had two austerity plans since August and Pecresse said
there will not be a third.
–Paris newsroom, +331 4271 5540; jduffy@marketnews,com
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