- Francois Hollande, French President
After a disappointing growth data from France, as the country recorded another quarter of zero growth, French Finance Minister Michel Sapin has admitted that the government's outlook of 1% growth this year is impossible to reach. On top of that, the country signalled it would miss its goal for reducing its public deficit as it was agreed with the European Commission. The deficit will end up above 4% of GDP, missing the 3.0% target. There is a lot of discontent with France, particularly in Germany, for its failure to meet existing goals. However, there are some bright spots. The Spanish economy has benefitted from an increase in exports. It may even revise upwards its growth outlook. Unemployment rate has been falling too, but it still remains uncomfortable high at 24.5%. Greece has a budget surplus, but its economy is still contracting. It may record some modest growth later in the year, but even so its expected growth remains too fragile to significantly reduce its debt and, almost certainly, it will need further help.
The Ukrainian crisis and the trade war with Russia have played a significant role in the setback, which casts doubts on the plans to revive the economic growth in Europe in the second half of the current year. Evidently, the recovery of the Eurozone was too fragile to withstand external shocks, even though it is hard to calculate the impact of sanctions against Russia.
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