French fears

Pummelled

Markets go into a panic about France

Aug 13th 2011 | PARIS | from the print edition

The Economist

NICOLAS SARKOZY, France’s president, rushed back from his holiday on August 10th to defend the country from financial attack. In a day of rumour, panic and denials, shares in Société Générale, the country’s third-biggest bank, fell by almost a fifth before recovering some ground to close down 15%.

French economy stagnates in second quarter

(Reuters) - French economic growth ground to a halt in the second quarter, raising pressure on the government to cut spending and abolish tax breaks to convince turbulent financial markets it will deliver on debt reduction targets.

France Considers Further Austerity

The Wall Street Journal

By DAVID GAUTHIER-VILLARS

PARIS—The French government pledged Wednesday to consider fresh tax rises, spending cuts and other budget measures to ensure the country doesn't deviate from a challenging deficit-reduction trajectory as market concerns that France's top-notch creditworthiness is at risk accelerated.