The end of the degradation of the economic activity, in France, during 2016 final quarter, is it the signal announcing, at last, growth comeback in 2017? For the time being, nothing is sure. French economy is stagnating for four years. Last estimations of 2016 GDP growth, 1.2%, shouldn’t create illusions. 2016 was a bissextile year with, a top of that, three public holidays occurring on a Sunday. The rebound, forecast for the 4^th quarter, will more reflect a catching up after the previous six months stagnation, than the signal of a durable trend. But that catching up ...

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The last annual report of Agence France Trésor, which is in charge of managing French State debt and was chaired by the head of the Treasury, Bruno Bezard until he was replaced by Odile Renaud-Basso last summer, has revealed that the amount of issuance premiums collected by France in 2015 reached near 25 billion euro. The same report (p.20) shows that this situation is quite atypical in the eurozone since Germany collected ten times less and Italy, another major borrower, three times less.

What are we talking about? The State, through AFT, when it issues a bond, can ...

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During months, economists and commentators alerted us to the risks on financial stability generated by too low or even negative interest rates. Donald Trump election has encouraged financial markets to anticipate a switch of American economic policy: monetary policy would become more restrictive, and the first signal should come next week with an interest rate rise decided by the Federal Reserve Board, while the budgetary policy would become more expansionist through taxes reductions and the launch of a public investments program. Actually, if the first part of this change is granted, the second one is more uncertain. The impact on ...

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