France’s former president Nicolas Sarkozy had plans to create a $1.6 billion hedge fund in London in order to escape his successor’s proposed 75 percent tax on the wealthy, claimed a report by the Daily Mail on Tuesday, after corruption investigations into Sarkozy last year uncovered details on “secret preparations” for the new venture.
France may have one of the best overall healthcare systems in the world, according to the World Health Organisation at least, but the government’s national health insurance policy may be “unaffordable and unsustainable” in the long run, reported Bloomberg Businessweek on Thursday, following a projected budget shortfall of nearly 5.1 billion euros ($6.65 billion) for 2013.
France’s Constitutional Council struck down on Saturday a plan to impose a 75 percent upper income tax rate, arguing that the so-called millionaire tax failed to “recognise equality before public burdens.”
The Constitutional Council’s decision is a political blow to President Francois Hollande, who had vowed in his election campaign to shift to the rich the burden of efforts to improve the country’s finances.
Credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded France’s sovereign debt rating by a single notch from triple-A to Aa1, citing concerns over Paris’ competitive decline as well as persistent structural rigidities and market inefficiencies.
In addition to the downgrade, the agency said France’s outlook remains negative, which means further downgrades are possible.
Finance minister Pierre Moscovici has insisted that France is not the “sick man of Europe”, rejecting growing concerns that the world’s fifth largest economy could become the next victim of the eurozone crisis.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Moscovici said that France did not have to resort to austerity to reach achieve the government’s projection of 0.8 percent growth in 2013 – twice the EU and IMF forecasts.
France’s decision to quadruple the levy for palm oil from 100 euros ($127) to 400 euros ($510) a tonne has been met with widespread criticism from local food producers and the world’s two largest exporters of the commodity, Indonesia and Malaysia, reported the New York Times on Wednesday, both of whom urged the French government to conduct a rigorous scientific study over palm oil’s health impact before imposing the new tax.
Acting on the recommendations of industrialist Louis Gallois, France will grant businesses 20 billion euros ($25.7 billion) in annual tax credits as a way of boosting the country’s economic competitiveness.
The tax break, however, falls short of the 30 billion euros “competitive shock” recommended by the government-commissioned Gallois report.
Related News: French Economy Urged to Undergo “Shock Therapy”
A government-commissioned study of the French economy by industrialist Louis Gallois, the former chief of aerospace group EADS, has called for a “competitive shock therapy” for the economy, arguing that the country that is facing a “crisis of confidence”.
The analysis, complied by Gallois, called for a 30 billion euros payroll tax cut, equivalent to 1.5 percent of the French GDP, as the centrepiece of an urgent effort to stem the industrial decline that has eroded the global competitiveness of French companies.
French beer brewers on Tuesday accused the government of “singling out” beer compared to wine, after President Francois Hollande announced plans to increasing taxes on beer by 160 percent to help fund struggling social programs.
French President Francois Hollande warned Google CEO Eric Schmidt on Monday that his government could impose a new legislation next year that would effectively force Google’s search engine to pay for the ‘right’ to cite French news articles.
