Brussels, 17/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 3 May 2013, the European Commission will unveil its Spring Economic Forecasts for the eurozone and the EU27.
On Wednesday 29 May, it will issue country-specific recommendations based on national stability and reform programmes to be submitted by the member states this week. In June, the European summit will be asked to endorse or amend the recommendations, thus ending the European Semester process for 2013.
France. On Wednesday 17 April, the French government unveiled stability and reform programme. It expects French GDP to grow by 0.1% in 2013 and 1.2% in 2014. Quizzed about these figures, a spokesperson for Euro Commissioner Olli Rehn said that the Commission had taken note of the forecasts of the French Haut Conseil and the IMF, both of which had been published on the same day. The French Haut Conseil says that the French government's growth forecasts for 2013 are over optimistic. The IMF forecasts that the economy will shrink this year by 0.1% of GDP, but return to growth in 2014 (0.9%). The Commission spokesperson said the Commission would be publishing its forecasts on 3 May and it would be in the interest of France to boost its competitiveness by sustainably consolidating public finance and introducing structural reforms.
Rejecting the idea of piling austerity on top of recession, French Economy Minister Pierre Moscovici said in an interview in Le Monde on Wednesday that France's public deficit will reach 3.7% of GDP in 2013, the same as the Commission's forecast. He said no further budget measures would be introduced in 2013 apart from the €30 billion-worth of measures already planned. He pointed out that France has been reining in its structural public deficit (not including the cost of the economic crisis) and hopes to be given an extra year to bring its public deficit to 2.9% - 2014 rather than 2013. (MB/transl.fl)