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George Magnus

Economist and Author

George Magnus

Economist and Author

Can Macron get labour reforms to work?

By George Magnus Posted on September 8, 2017December 22, 2017 In Europe + UK, Viewpoints France economy, France labour reforms 0

First published: Prospectmagazine.co.uk

The president’s approval ratings are now dire—but the big test is yet to come

It seems only yesterday that Emmanuel Macron swept to power in France’s presidential election, and his political movement, EN MARCHE!, secured a commanding victory in subsequent parliamentary elections. Fears that France would succumb to the Front National’s populism proved groundless. Yet Macron’s latest approval rating stands at just 36 per cent, not dissimilar to that of Donald Trump. And this is before he has done anything really controversial to address the country’s structural economic problems. Last week, though, he began, and announced proposals to reform France’s labour market system, or Code du Travail. These reforms, which have been a long time coming, will soon be tested in the streets with strikes predicted next week, and possibly also in the courts.

If you took an economic snapshot of France, the picture wouldn’t be so bad. The economy grew by 2 per cent at an annual rate in the second quarter, and is on course for growth of about 1.5-1.8 per cent this year and in 2018. Unemployment, now at around 9.5 per cent, is slowly coming down, while profit margins and investment spending are going the other way. France has the opposite of the UK household sector’s addiction to debt: French household savings equate to about 14 per cent of disposable income. And income inequality has been less of a problem in France than elsewhere in advanced economies……Read more:

Photo credit: Thibaut Prévost Profil via photopin (license)

previously

previously

The pound won’t stop plummeting any time soon
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up next

How Trump could completely reshape the federal reserve

About

George Magnus

George Magnus

George Magnus is an independent economist and commentator, an Associate at the China Centre, Oxford University, and an adviser to some asset management companies.

He is a regular contributor to the Financial Times, Prospect Magazine and other written media, and appears regularly on BBC TV and radio, Bloomberg TV and other outlets.

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"George Magnus does not look like a prophet. Yet this is the man widely acknowledged to have predicted that the US sub-prime mortgage crisis would trigger a global recession."

- Josephine Moulds, The Daily Telegraph

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