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Francois Hollande took over France in a low growth in Europe depressed, with the main challenges the recovery of public accounts and employment.

The pressure is on the new president, who knows that its room for maneuver is more limited than those of his predecessors.

Having identified the growth as a condition of the reduction of public deficits in Europe, it will negotiate, particularly with Germany, measures to stimulate activity without deteriorating accounts of the States.

In France, he inherits an annual deficit of about € 100 billion, focused on the state and the financial statements. 

He promises to bring the end of 2011 from 5.2% to 3% of GDP end 2013 in accordance with the commitment of France, by raising taxes and curbing the rise in die ; think the effort is balanced between the two.

Priority of the French unemployment rises, it, every month for nearly a year and reached a forgotten since the late twentieth century.

To reverse the trend, adapting the social system and revive the industry, the new president plans to use fiscal and budgetary weapons and engage in important negotiations with employers' organizations and union. 

FAITH IN THE FUTURE

Like his predecessors, he hopes to be helped by a more dynamic growth than await the IMF, OECD, the European Commission and economists. Additional austerity measures could therefore be required.

GDP would grow by 0.5% according to him this year, 1.7% in 2013, 2% in 2014, and 2% to 2.5% from 2015.

Economists at Credit Agricole CIB-felt before the second round it was a forecast "too optimistic".

"Both programs lack a credible comprehensive strategy to boost competitiveness and growth", they added about the finalists.

Francois Hollande opposed to a sudden slowdown in public spending, want to avoid explaining a recessive effect that dry up the revenue of the state and would increase the deficit instead to reduce it. 

Increased spending would be 1.1% per year – against an average of 1.7% from 2007 to 2010 – which would decrease the amount as a percentage of GDP if growth is there.

His relatives said that the rating agencies were watching the growth prospects of the states, not just fiscal ratios.

Degraded by Standard and Poor's earlier this year, the memo from France – ever "triple A" by Moody's and Fitch – is negative outlook for all three agencies, which means other damage are possible.

RECOVERY HISTORY

Francois Hollande promises to balance the public accounts end of 2017, a first since 1974. The effort would be one hundred billion over five years, including about forty by the end of 2013, provided that the annual defense budget.

"Despite the strong commitment of candidates to control deficits, we highlight the historical magnitude of the adjustment would be needed", noted analysts at Barclays.

To lower the debt ratio to GDP, which tends toward 90%, about 80% end of 2017, Francois Hollande provides significant tax increases, where the impact would be in his the less sensitive: the richest households and the largest enterprises.

Thirty billion of new taxes would reduce the deficit, and fifteen more would finance a portion of its 20 billion euros of measures. Some of these measures according to him should support growth and employment, others restore "justice" as the softening of the pension reform.

It is however committed to removing the VAT hike decided for the month of October and that would affect all consumers.

Faced with unemployment at its highest since 1999, Francois Hollande relies on a battery of policy measures – including an increase in recruitment of officials – and on support for small and medium enterprises.

He promises a "generation contract" to integrate young people into the business while retaining older workers, and the creation of 150,000 "jobs of the future", a discount of up to date "youth jobs" of the Jospin government. He announced a refocusing of training on the less educated public and strengthening the capacity of job center.

STRUCTURAL WEAKNESSES

The new president will also reduce structural weaknesses that undermine the French economy since the end of the "thirty glorious years".

The foreign trade surplus that has been ten years since 1950, had a deficit of 70 billion euros last year, a record. The market share of France in world trade deteriorates to 3.3% last year against 5.8% in 1995. Exports and the deficit with the EU, representing 61% of total products sold outside France, widened further.

The imbalance of foreign trade is reflected in the current account deficit, which measures the evolution of the country's debt vis-à-vis the outside, so that almost ; s two-thirds of the stock of marketable debt held by French non-residents.

Francois Hollande surprised during the campaign by his discretion on structural reforms intended to reduce these imbalances.

"The discussions on an agenda of structural reforms (labor, goods and services) are, surprisingly, absent from the campaign of Francois Hollande," analysts at Barclays stressed. "That said, we see reason to believe in the ability of Francois Hollande to reform: the Socialist Party has traditionally good relations with social partners and Francois Hollande is known for build consensus. "

For Gilles Moec, Deutsche Bank, "its goal of zero deficit in 2017 is underpinned by ambitious growth forecasts which we believe are not credible without reforms rapid structural on which the Socialists are now completely silent. "

Free business cards is an innovation that is a boon to any businessperson who is on a budget. And don't think that because you're on a budget and the business cards are free that they look cheap.

Lloyds has surprised investors by announcing Tuesday a 36% reduction of its bad debts and a quarterly profit after the loss of 3.5 billion pounds (4.3 billion) realized a year ago.

At midday, the action of the British bank and advanced 2.32% to 31.73 pence while the FTSE 100 London Stock Exchange, the only open in Europe in May 1 , gained 0.24%.

The UK bank has yet announced that it had a fresh supply of 375 million pounds (459 million) in its accounts for the first quarter to cover the reimbursement of customers who potentially overpaid for certain insurance policies. 

Lloyds 40% owned by the State since the 2008 financial crisis, said the increase in provisions in the case of insurance policies had been decided e given the increasing volume of complaints received, echoing comments made by Barclays last week about it.

Last year, Lloyds had already funded £ 3.2 billion for the same reasons.

The group also said that the sale of 632 programmed agencies made little progress, while being pessimistic about the UK economy, fallout recession in the first quarter.

"We think the economy will stagnate this year but it will be a long and difficult recovery. We anticipate a resumption of growth in 2013 and a peak in unemployment of almost 9% early next year, "said Antonio Horta-Osorio, Director General ; ral

. Lloyds bank has cleared the first three months of a taxable income Statutory 288 million pounds over the period, against 316 million the previous quarter

. The largest British settlement in terms of customers reported a level of bad debts to 1.7 billion pounds

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Tesco said Wednesday it would spend a billion pounds (1.2 billion) to overhaul its operations in Britain, where he seeks to regain market share, to re ESTABLISHING sales growth and to calm shareholders became nervous.

The emphasis on revitalizing sales implies that investments will be reduced to 3.3 billion pounds in the coming year against 3.8 billion last year.

The third global retailer also said its U.S. subsidiary successfully stalled later than expected.

Tesco dominates the segment of food retailing in Britain with a market share of 30% but in January it launched its first profit warning in 20 years. 

British retailer also announced a profit before tax of the group and exceptional up 1.6% to 3.9 billion pounds on the financial year ended February 25.

The consensus of analysts conducted by Tesco itself gave 3.88 billion, compared to 3.81 billion pounds for the year 2010/2011.

Operating earnings in Britain, where Tesco makes more than 70% of the balance, decreased 1% last quarter, while sales on a comparable basis fell 1.6%.

Takeda Pharmaceutical announced Wednesday the purchase for $ 800 million (609 million) of URL Pharma, a U.S. laboratory specializing in the treatment of gout.

The first Japanese pharmaceutical company will provide further value based on future performance from 2015.

Japanese pharmacists are engaged in a flurry of overseas acquisitions, Takeda announced in the May 2011 takeover of Swiss laboratory Nycomed for € 9.6 billion.

URL Pharma achieved a turnover of about $ 600 million in 2011. Its main product is Colcrys, a drug for the treatment and prevention of gout.

Net sales Colcrys exceeded $ 430 million in 2011.

EDF Energies Nouvelles and Alstom are the big winners of the first tender for wind turbines off the French coast of the Channel, the second one being planned in the second half to achieve the target set for 2020.

This tender, intended to kick-start the offshore wind sector, should help France catch up it has accumulated in other European countries in terms renewable energy and reduce its dependence on the nuclear-vis.

The Industry Minister, Eric Besson, announced Friday the award of contracts representing a total capacity of 2,000 megawatts, the equivalent of two small nuclear reactors. 

These capabilities are less than a third than originally expected, the field Tréport (Seine-Maritime, Somme) has not been allocated for lack of sufficient competition.

The consortium formed by Alstom and EDF with Danish Dong Energy and won three of the five fields involved: Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique), Fécamp (Seine-Maritime) and Courseulles-sur-Mer (Calvados), or a volume of about 240 wind turbines.

Spain's Iberdrola and the French group Areva will see their side of the field jointly awarded the Saint-Brieuc (Côtes d'Armor), which should bring 100 turbines.

GDF Suez, which had also formed a consortium with Areva, gets nothing at this stage but will compete in the second tender. 

"This decision will enable France to continue the development of renewable energy that are, next to nuclear power one of the two pillars of our policy e ; nergétique, "said Eric Besson at a press conference.

"A NEW INDUSTRIAL SECTOR"

He confirmed the target of 6,000 megawatts of capacity by 2020, as set by the Grenelle Environment for offshore wind and marine energy. The latter also include turbines, turbines use the energy of ocean currents, for which a separate tender is planned within two years.

The second tender will involve particular area Tréport and that of Noirmoutier, he said.

The selection of candidates announced Friday an investment of seven billion euros and the creation of 10,000 direct manufacturing jobs, argued Eric Besson.

"The foundations of a new industry and export are asked," welcomed his side in a statement the consortium led by EDF Energies Nouvelles, a subsidiary of EDF.

While Alstom plans to invest 100 million euros and generate up to 7.500 jobs with its partners, the challenge will be for the group to impose its new generation of turbine Haliade, inaugurated on March 19 to book (Loire-Atlantique).

Alstom, which confirmed Friday the establishment of four plants in Cherbourg and Saint-Nazaire for its wind Haliade says that orders, amounting to over two billion euros, will occur by field field from 2014.

Areva has now put forward his experience and that could create 4,000 jobs in France, including 1,000 in its single perimeter, while GDF Suez has raised up 'to 6,000 direct and indirect jobs.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange ended down 0.53% Thursday, limiting its losses in the wake of the sharp drop on Wall Street and European markets.

The Nikkei fell 52.38 points to 9,767.61 points after touching a low four-week session and the Topix broader point yielded 2.79 points (-0.33%) to 832.57 points.

Toshiba has closed up 1.73%. The world number two flash memories is considering an alliance with South Korea's SK Hynix Semiconductor to buy Elpida Memory, according to the Nikkei newspaper.

Values ​​have been car clearances, leaving Toyota and Honda Motor 0.72% 1.13%.

The countries pledged to reduce its public deficit to three points of GDP by 2012. To achieve this, the government announced tax increases and lower spending. The Spanish head of government right, Mariano Rajoy.

Brussels had requested an additional effort of 20 billion euros. Spain is best. The Spanish government on Friday approved its draft budget for 2012, which provides "over 27 billion euros' savings and new revenues, including through the wage freeze for civil servants and lower departmental budgets by 16.9% on average.

"We are facing an extreme situation," admitted the government spokesman Soraya Saenz de Santamaria after the Council of Ministers, and "our first obligation is to return to public accounts cleaned up", while the Spain pledged to cut the end of 2012 the government deficit, from 8.51% to 5.3% of GDP.  

Spain is the country with the least restated its fiscal 2011, the experts calculated at Credit Suisse. Its structural deficit (independent conditions) was reduced by 1 percentage point of GDP. A figure that is stain when compared to the effort in neighboring countries: more than 3 points in Portugal and almost 6 percentage points in Greece. To compensate for the delay in 2011, Spain had to work twice as hard. It's done. At least in part.

Most analysts expected the need for Spain to find about 50 billion euros between savings and new revenues, taking into account the recession, which should reduce the Spanish GDP by 1.7% this year. The rest of the effort must come from particular regions and municipalities, the fragile financial health since the bursting of the housing bubble in 2008.

Madrid, in any case, does not completely stifle the economy by embarking on a program of excessive rigor.

The return to a lower deficit will be "not achieved at any price," warned Soraya Saenz, stressing the need to "support those who need it most and does not block growth and job creation "In a country with record unemployment (22.85%). Thus, "we decided to keep the revaluation of pensions, freeze the salaries of civil servants rather than decrease, maintain unemployment benefits and social spending, including grants," she said. Similarly, "we will not raise VAT to not harm the consumer and the economic recovery, but we will increase the corporation tax for large companies."

Health spending should not increase by more than 2.9% last year. The target was held and even beyond. But if the city manages to medicine to save money, it's more difficult for the hospital. But the effort required for 2012 has been strengthened.

Good news. The national target of expenditure (ONDAM), indicator of the health expenditure control, was observed in 2011, for the second consecutive year. Savings have been achieved even, mainly due to the general practice.

"Under 2011, spending will be well below 330 million euros to the goal voted by Parliament. Specifically, spending on care city will be less than 300 million," said a joint statement ministries Budget , Health and Solidarity.

The hospital sector is more difficult to roll back its spending. "For their part, hospital expenditures do not exceed, after setting aside prudential funds, the authority of Parliament," the statement said, meaning that the ONDAM hospital has been held that using a gel certain appropriations provided by the state, primarily for public hospitals, for most of 2011.

The deficit of public and private non-profit improves slightly (0.8%) in 2011: 504 million euros against 508 million in 2010. For teaching hospitals (CHU), the largest public hospitals, the overall deficit improved by 15 to 329.4 million. Nicolas Sarkozy had hoped in 2007 a return to balanced operating accounts in public hospitals for 2012.

For the three departments 'performance' of 2011 "bodes well for the respect of ONDAM in 2012, for the third consecutive year." The goal for this year was, however hardened, precision required, and will be more difficult to hold, with a projected increase of 2.5% against 2.9% in 2010 and 2011.

The CSMF reacted to the government announcement stressed again that the bulk of the savings was realized by the general practice. "Beyond compliance ONDAM general ONDAM care is respected city for four consecutive years" and in 2011, savings totaled 612 million, "62 million more than expected," says union in a statement. He took the opportunity to claim back a "rebalancing" budget for the care of town. For 2012, the rising cost of ambulatory care was limited to 2.1% against 2.6% for hospital costs.

Salaries revved up on the Asian continent. In some Chinese provinces, the minimum wage is the same as in Romania. But China is really less competitive? A factory in China flat panel displays.

Competitiveness of Asia is it falling? The English-language newspapers and French launch debate, astonishing figures to support. The Wall Street Journal, remuneration ignite the entire Asian continent. In Thailand, the minimum wage should be increased by 40% in early April. In Indonesia, it has already increased by 20% in many areas in recent months. In China, wages have jumped 181% since 2004. In several parts of China, the minimum wage is now at the same level as Bulgaria and Romania, the newspaper Les Echos.

This surge in earnings, barely slowed by the crisis, he signs the end of the "low cost" in Asia? It is still too early to tell. Certainly, if one believes the economics textbooks, China and its neighbors will lose, with wage growth, competitive advantage in sectors intensive in labor, such as textiles and electronics. A phenomenon which should result in a second step, an upscale Asian.

Except that on the ground, it's not really what we observe, notes Francoise Lemoine, China economist at CEPII. In recent months, China's exports, for example, slowed less quickly than international trade. In other words, the weight of the Middle Kingdom in trade has rather strengthened over the recent period, although the announcement of a record trade deficit has cooled the market!

Moreover, China still has a structural advantage in competitiveness. Wages are only part of the story. We must also look productivity, says Francoise Lemoine. It increases by 10% per year. And foreign companies operating in China are careful not to let this figure decreasing through investments. Indeed, even if wages increase rapidly, especially in the eastern regions which provided further in 2009 nearly 90% of exports, their growth does not exceed that of productivity frankly. Ultimately, the competitiveness of China is still largely preserved.

Especially since the Middle Kingdom has another asset: its reservoir of manpower. China continues to move part of its production in the inland provinces, where wages are lower. Of course, Beijing began a decade ago a rebalancing policy, which should eventually lead to an increased weight of consumption over exports. But do not misinterpret this policy: China has not given up being an exporting nation, says Francoise Lemoine.

In fact, given its advantages, China may well remain very competitive for ten years. However, its scope for growth in the markets today is much lower than that of a decade ago, due to wage increases of course, but also because of the proliferation of protectionist measures, such as the segment solar panels. One statistic sums up the situation in China. Its share in world exports of manufactured goods reached 16%. But in the past, this level has always been a peak for the major exporting countries, whether the United States, Germany or Japan.

Arnaud Lagardère, the General Partner of Lagardère, was sold for eight million shares of the group founded by his father Jean-Luc Lagardère.

According to advice published by the Financial Markets Authority (AMF), the shares were sold in five lots between 12 and 16 March. Arnaud Lagardère has sold 346,653 shares, representing 0.26% stake in media group.

Prior to these assignments, Arnaud Lagardere held directly and indirectly 9.62% of Lagardère, or 12,610,893 shares, as the group's annual report in late 2010.

These sales of securities came as the sovereign wealth fund Qatar Holding is mounted to the capital of Lagardère in its interest to 12.8% against 10% previously. The Qatari fund since December is the largest shareholder group.

"The sale of shares made these days on behalf of Mr. Lagardère held as part of the unwinding of a financing package set up by BNP Paribas in 2004 to opportunity of settling the estate of his father and under the relevant contract ", simply commented Lagardère in an email to the press.

"Mr. Lagardère has signed, as such, a term of disposals programmed, September 30, 2011 and including the AMF was informed," says the company. "The declarations of leadership assignments are made directly to the MFA by the operator."

Lagardère, which owns a 7.5% share in EADS, has suffered a heavy loss in 2011, 707 million euros due to massive writedowns past ; are about sports.

This diversification, considered strategic by Arnaud Lagardère, ended last year with an operating loss of six million euros, after sales performance below expectations, loss of several contracts and litigation.