Hollande: France’s economic recovery has begun
July 14, 2013, 3:00 pm

Hollande attended a Bastille Day military parade [Xinhua]

“The economic recovery is here,” Hollande told journalists during his live-aired interview on local TV channels after attending the July 14 Bastille Day celebrations in Paris.

France, along with other European economic powerhouses, has been trying to beat a recession which has persisted throughout Europe.

The French President did not rule out tax increases to help balance the budget and lower rampant deficit.

“We will make — we have made — savings, and I will increase taxes only if absolutely necessary, ideally as little as possible,” he said in statements carried live by French TV networks.

France is expected to return to growth – 0.2 percent in the second quarter – after entering recession earlier in the year.

Hollande once again pledged to vigorously combat unemployment, which hit a record 3.26 million last month..

A report from the Russian Economic Development Ministry in June indicated that recession in eurozone countries is likely to continue as global recovery begins to slow down.

Eurozone retail sales fell by 0.5 per cent in April, after a 0.1 per cent decline in March.

The fastest fall in sales was registered in Finland (3.6 per cent), the UK (two per cent), France (0.9 per cent), Ireland (0.8 per cent) and Germany (0.4 per cent), the report said.

In January 2013, the European Commission’s office for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion released a report that indicated unemployment in some countries has reached record levels with nearly 19 million people jobless in the eurozone.

An EU report on February 22 forecast slightly higher unemployment rates: 26.9 per cent in Spain (up from 26.6 per cent), while in Greece jobless rates have increased from 19 to 27 per cent over the past year (up from 26 per cent previously forecast).

In February, the European Commission released figures that showed the economy of the 17-member eurozone will shrink 0.3 per cent in 2013 and not 0.1 per cent as previously predicted.

Source: Agencies