Advertise On EU-Digest

Annual Advertising Rates

8/27/14

France: French PM, on charm offensive with business, says to speed up reforms - by Ingrid Melander and Jean-Baptiste

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls launched a charm offensive on the corporate world on Wednesday, promising to speed reforms aimed at freeing up the economy and to make tens of billions of euros in tax cuts.
Valls declared that he "loves business" in what was the most pro-entrepreneur speech yet from the Socialist government of President Francois Hollande - who in his election campaign described finance as his enemy. 

The head of France's employers' group said the comments could mark a new era.
Responding to renewed pressure from the European Commission for France to pursue reforms, Valls said the government would try to lower the public deficit but warned that too much budget rigor could thwart efforts to revive economic growth.

Two days after Hollande evicted maverick economy minister Arnaud Montebourg in a government reshuffle aimed at re-affirming increasingly pro-business policies, Valls tried to reassure corporate leaders who had been often irritated by Montebourg's interventionism and mixed government messages.

"Entrepreneurs, France needs you ... I love business, I love business," Valls said to applause.

"The path back to growth is in supporting business," Valls said, reaffirming a policy U-turn already announced by Hollande at the start of the year with about 40 billion euros ($53 billion) of corporate tax cuts and 50 billion euros of public spending cuts to 2017.

Read more: French PM, on charm offensive with business, says to speed up reforms - Yahoo News

No comments: