France’s Socialist government seized on better than expected economic growth figures to reject concern that France could become the next focus of the eurozone crisis, insisting it was acting to reform the flagging economy.
“France is not the sick man of Europe. France remains the world’s fifth largest economic power that has all its resources but which needs to recover its competitiveness,” Pierre Moscovici, the finance minister, told the Financial Times.
Forecasts of weak French economic performance from the EU and the International Monetary Fund have fuelled fears that the country could exacerbate the eurozone recession if President François Hollande’s government of six months does not enact structural reforms similar to those under way in Italy and Spain.