BBC NEW - France: spending and unemployment highest in Europe - France urged to cut its spending by ECB

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France: spending and unemployment highest in Europe - France urged to cut its spending by ECB

The President of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, has urged France to reduce its public spending. Giving evidence to a commission in Paris set up to boost economic growth, Mr Trichet said France was "not in the right frame in terms of efficiency". He said that in 2007, public spending in France would be the heaviest as proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) within the European Union. Mr Trichet also said France had the highest unemployment level in the eurozone. For older people, he said the jobless rate was "ridiculously low" and he called for greater flexibility in the labour market, along the lines of Denmark and the Irish Republic. Note EU-Digest: Mr. Sarkozy, the French President seems to be on the right track to remedy the present unstable economic situation in France. In general his efforts are also strongly supported by a majority of the French voters.