International News

A year after its introduction, the majority and the government seem divided on VAT at 5.5% in restaurants. To reduce the government deficit, Budget Minister Francois Baroin, this plane would "very, very large niche for tax, estimated at 3 billion euros Bercy. Its minister, Christine Lagarde, has cropped Tuesday morning: the reduced rate of VAT "is legitimate on the merits.

But the revolt against the old promise of Jacques Chirac, applied from 1 July 2009 thanks to the activism of Nicolas Sarkozy, also scolded the Assembly. Without naming the VAT on food, the general rapporteur for the Budget, Gilles Carrez (UMP), has questioned "a number of consumer items that are 5.5% and that should not be at 5.5 %. He advocates instead an intermediate rate to 12%.

Since the introduction of the measure for the restoration, the context is not the same.The government, which has hitherto led a recovery policy, had to change tack in recent months under pressure from the markets. It is now to reduce the deficit. Especially in the planing tax loopholes.

Nevertheless, the statements and Gilles Carrez Baroin were poorly received by restaurants. "It's absolutely outrageous to say that the 5.5% VAT tax is a niche!" Reacts Philippe Villalon, president of the National Federation of the restoration (FNRF). "We buy our products and we sell 5,5% to 5.5%. As is the case for all areas of the mouth.Moreover, if we repeat the policies they want to end VAT at 5.5%, we should not translate that we lower our prices, nor that we hired, as the state would break its part of contract. "

During the implementation of the measure, the restorers had promised to lower prices, to invest and hire. These commitments, which would take over in case of cancellation of VAT at 5.5%, would have been more or less respected. The Court of Auditors estimated last October that the measure would involve only 6,000 new jobs. The profession claims to the contrary today promised 21,700 against 20,000 a year.

The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) to better protect investors. Like announced last April, the MFA has launched with the collaboration of the supervisory authority, a new public financial information. His goal? To better inform its clients on banking, savings, insurance, financial markets or the credit. The public will get information on insurance products (home, auto, life, health …), bank accounts, means of payment, bank books or the functioning of financial markets, products collective savings, companies listed on the Stock Exchange, the securities account.

"Applications will be redirected by the operators to specialists of the AMF or the supervisory authority," says Madeleine Guidoni, mediator of the AMF.The policeman of the Exchange hopes to meet customer expectations disappointed that their banks do not have better information about the content of such Fund.

Life buoy

"The financial institution has taken to bad habits for marketing of financial products", regrets the AMF Ombudsman Paperless payday loans. With this new service, the regulator should thus be able to better track business practices of banks and better focus the control activities.

After the merger of the bank authorities and insurance giving birth to the supervisory authority, the creation of this service, as required by the economy minister, Christine Lagarde, is like a lifeline to investors, including confidence in financial markets has been severely affected by the numerous cases of fraud or scam.

Called Bank Savings Insurance News Service, is available in a website – www.abs-infoservice.fr – a telephone helpline – 0811901801 – and a postal address – 61 Rue Taitbout, 75009 Paris. The domestic number is available Monday through Friday from 8:00 to 6:00 p.m..

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The world leader in chemistry, German BASF, is expected to sign Tuesday the acquisition of fellow Cognis according to the Financial Times Deutschland. Owned by Permira and Goldman Sachs, Cognis manufactures additives for cosmetics and detergents.

According to sources close to the case interviewed by the newspaper, the transaction amounted to 3.2 billion euros. In 2009, sales of Cognis representing 2.6 billion euros and EBITDA was $ 364 million. On its website, the company states employ approximately 5,600 people and be present in thirty countries.

Originally, Cognis was a subsidiary of Henkel, resold in 2004 to 2.5 billion euros. In 2006, the efforts of its new owners to sell it failed. In recent years, the company split from two of its five subsidiaries.BASF has already bought in 2009 the Swiss Ciba for 3.8 billion euros to strengthen in the mill.

This is not a surprise but the time is more than ever in a pinch. Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy will meet on Monday to prepare the European Council by the end of the week and the G20 Toronto. Discussions will focus obviously on public deficits in the euro area, including sanctions to apply against the states that are lax or new ways of coordination of economic policies. Originally scheduled on June 7 last, the interview was postponed, allowing the two leaders unveiled their own plans for savings.

French plan considered "practicable"

The plan submitted by Paris this weekend, is considered "feasible" by the Governor of the Bank of France, Christian Noyer.This has indeed said Sunday he is "perfectly possible" for France to bring its public deficit to 3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2013 as foreseen in the government aims to reduce the public deficit (government, corporate accounts, local communities), 100 billion. To do this, the Governor of the Bank of France has called for "priority measures to reduce expenses."

Effort on the sources of expenditure

And that's the government's target. The Budget Minister Francois Baroin said Sunday that the objective will be achieved by making "a major effort on all sources of expenditure, the state plans to cut public spending by 45 billion euros. The Minister added that this effort on ITélé would "not less" than in Germany.In Germany, the government wants to save 80 billion by 2014, thanks to budget cuts in military spending and social.

The question remains what the market reaction. For now, a report published Sunday by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) says that the bailout of the European Union has not defused the fears of the markets. The institutions in Basel has also reaffirmed that the French and German banks are particularly exposed to the debts of Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain with a respective total of 493 billion and 465 billion dollars.

While France has 75,000 Internet subscribers high-speed fiber optics, Maxime Lombardini, Chief Free said that France has everything to expedite the arrival of this new technology into homes. While some question the framework put in place in France to deploy fiber, Free hand, considers that promotes investment and competition and allows the French to receive subscriptions less expensive in Europe. Free calls within the regulation, its competitors to invest with him in fifty common.

LE FIGARO. – France takes it from behind in the deployment of fiber optics?

Maxime LOMBARDINI. – Quite the contrary, France is ahead. The advent of fiber optics in homes is accelerating.After three years of work, France is at the forefront in Europe, thanks to a very successful framework that enables rapid deployment of fiber networks without digging sidewalks and minimizing interference in the condominium thanks for sharing. In addition, this framework allows consumers to freely choose their provider and gives them the cheapest in Europe. In France, subscriptions to fiber costs 30 euros a month, against more than 100 U.S. dollars. Operators will deploy fiber in the condo together for 5 million homes in the dense areas. Four operators have begun deployments significant.Result, there will be at the end of the year more than 100,000 subscribers to the optical fiber (FTTH), and hundreds of thousands in late 2011.

Why do operators do not they do more advertising for the fiber?

We do not launch national campaign as the fiber is not everywhere. But when a neighborhood or a town is connected, we inform our ADSL subscribers and the people that for the same price, we offer very high-speed fiber. They have therefore a very fast internet access. Other immediate benefits they can receive television via their optical box on multiple televisions, enjoy high definition, the catch-up TV, 3D programs, etc..

France Telecom has called on its competitors to co-invest with him on a fifty Commons. Free is he leaving?

Sure.We have responded positively to France Telecom, which will pose a dedicated fiber to each home to Free bundle. For Free, this represents an investment of tens of millions of euros. We ourselves will today call for co-investment in more than 50 towns, including Paris, Nice, Marseille, Toulouse, Nantes, representing nearly 3 million potential catch. We ask that interested operators to respond to us by early July.

How much will you invest?

In fiber optics, Free has taken 2 million and 1.5 million work in the study. I confirm that we have 4 million homes connected with fiber in 2012. We signed agreements with condominium units representing 350,000. Free has invested 350 million euros in the fiber to date in 2010 and will invest over 150 million. The creation of direct and indirect employment is significant.All this shows that we are in a phase of very concrete investment and our motivation to deploy broadband is strong.

This hampers Does the deployment in parallel, on your mobile?

No. Free has the means to pursue these two sites in parallel: in 2010, over 2 billion turnover, the group will spend more than $ 750 million to capital spending, while remaining one of the least indebted telecom operators to Europe.On mobile, the deployment is well underway, and we, again, created over 1,000 jobs directly and indirectly.

When towns and villages can they expect to be connected to fiber optics?

If governments continue to encourage all operators to invest and participate in construction through big loan, we can begin to connect the less dense areas in 2011.

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According to Les Echos, Veolia Environment and Suez Environment, the two companies negotiating with SEDIF (Union Water Ile-de-France) for a giant contract to supply water to 144 municipalities in the Ile-de-France, outside Paris, have both received a letter.

Following this letter, only Veolia was invited to continue the development of the contract. This means that the number one global services to the environment is only now vying for the contract of ten years, possibly extendable to twelve years, which shall become effective on 1 January 2011 cash advance america. Suez Environment has indeed confirmed on Tuesday he was excluded from the tender. Veolia Water, part of Veolia Environnement holds the contract since 1923.

France Telecom said Thursday it had made in the first quarter 2010 revenues down 2% to 10.96 billion euros, in line with market expectations.Profits from his business – not amortissment, charges and taxes (EBITDA) – stand down 4.8% to 3.76 billion euros.

The amount reported sales, which fall into falling 2.7% on a comparable basis, excluding the activities in the United Kingdom, merged with T-Mobile, the French operator said in a statement.

"The group has again demonstrated its ability to maintain its performance in terms of turnover and profitability in an economic and regulatory environment remains difficult," said the CEO of France Telecom, St?phane Richard, quoted in statement.

The operator maintains its 2010 goal of cash generation of around 8 billion euros, "before possible acquisition of new frequencies and without taking into account the impact related to the business tax in France before 2003" .

In its home market, France Telecom has recorded a turnover of 5.77 billion, a decrease of 2.4% (-2.1% on a comparable basis). Spain is even worse, with sales decline of 3.3% (-2.8% on a comparable basis).

In contrast, "Africa and the Middle East are growing more than 7% (on a comparable basis) due to" the rise of our business especially in C?te d'Ivoire, Kenya, Senegal and Uganda, " said St?phane Richard.

On Tuesday, France Telecom was willing to pay 300 million dollars, or about EUR 224 million, allowance to Orascom Telcom under its agreement with the group in Cairo to settle their dispute over Mobinil.

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In an email sent Wednesday to news agencies that Credit Agricole has made the announcement. The financial institution said its commitments related to the Greek state reached 850 million euros, 600 million for its Greek subsidiary Emporiki. No further comment was made.

The news comes as the crisis Greek climbed a step, revived by the relegation of the country score in the category of speculative investments by the rating agency Standard & Poor's. Many analysts believe that Credit Agricole is one of the banks most exposed to the current crisis in Greece.

More generally, according to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the French banks in Europe are most concerned with exposure estimated at 75.12 billion dollars (57 billion euros), followed by German banks with exposure estimated at 45 billion dollars (34 billion euros).

French banks are the only institutions to have bought Greek Emporiki to Credit Agricole and Societe Generale for Geniki. The latter has not yet discussed the amount of its commitment.For its part, the general manager of BNP Paribas, Baudouin Prot, said Wednesday that his institution's exposure to Greek banks was "absolutely negligible" fast cash loans.

The sector battered stock market

The markets are in any case a very dim view of the involvement of French banks in a country attacked by the rating agencies. Investors fear that such consequences could lead to default or restructure the debt of Greece.

Results: The bank is breaking titles in stock. The action of the Credit Agricole fell 3.41% Wednesday to the Paris Stock Exchange, after declining more than 7.6% during the session. It lost 9.57% over the five days and 10.60% since the beginning of the year.

Societe Generale has limited the damage on Wednesday with a decline of 0.33% in closing. But the fall is much heavier since January 1 of that Credit Agricole, with a decline of 16.42%.

For its part, BNP Paribas dropped 3.48% on Wednesday at the close of Paris, and 8.80% since the beginning of the year.

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Goldman Sachs began his defense alone. According to the report in the Financial Times, Lloyd Blankfein, the chairman of the bank, alleged organizer of the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) fraud surrounding the collapse of the U.S. housing market, a slab as counsel yesterday. He allegedly spent part of Wednesday's call customers to restore the reputation of Goldman Sachs. The officer believes that the case rests primarily on political elements.

Lloyd Blankfein should be heard next week by the SEC, probably with a former trader, Fabrice Tourre, suspected to have developed structured products involved in this case alleged fraud by Goldman Sachs. The list of those candidates is not yet official.The names of those called to testify before the Senate subcommittee investigation on the financial crisis could be unveiled this Thursday payday loan no faxing.

But the suspicions of the SEC against Goldman Sachs are dehorned by the potential beneficiaries of the alleged fraud. The billionaire John Paulson and Paolo Pellegrini, a former head of its fund Paulson Co, assure for their Paris on the falling U.S. housing market, now at the heart of the controversy over Goldman Sachs, have been prepared under the rules art, and that their pronouncements t?aient public. They promise to provide evidence of such transparency in a timely manner.

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Since Tuesday, investors are moving away from safe-haven assets following the various signs of recovery in the global economy. The success of Intel promote appetite for risk. What will weigh on the dollar. Just as the maintenance of the speech by the Fed, which promotes interest rates still very low even for long.

EUR / USD – Sessions hectic since early April

After the Easter weekend, there has been a depreciation of the euro against the dollar in a climate of distrust of so-called risky currencies. The operators were cooled in their appetite for risk because of their fear on the issue of Greece. The single currency has lost about 220 pips * from a quotation of dollar 1.3500 1.3282 U.S. dollar on Thursday at 10am (lowest of the week).

Then the tension on the markets have weakened.Speech by Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the ECB (European Central Bank) last Thursday, has eased the financial world. He said he pursued the policy of low interest rates up to 1% in the euro area. And it has said that "Greece was able to reduce its deficit" and had already started to employ strong measures.

Nothing better to give a boost to the euro. The last weekend, offering assistance to 30 billion euros – Athens does "not want to use" – the European Union gave a big blow oxygen, allowing the euro to rise around 1 36 dollar on Monday.After two sessions of stagnation (Monday and Tuesday), the exchange rate has increased again, bolstered by renewed investor optimism about the strength of the global recovery due to favorable economic statistics, while comments Fed chairman on a forecast of "moderate growth" have weighed on the greenback.

On Tuesday, the foreign exchange markets have welcomed the issuance by Athens Treasury bills.And on Wednesday, Ben Bernanke (Beige Book) reiterated Wednesday that the rate of the institution should remain close to zero, at which they are set since December 2008, for an extended period, dismissing speculation of an anticipated tightening of Fed monetary policy, which has given new impetus to the euro.

As expected by analysts Realtime Forex Tuesday, which saw the euro test the 1.3541 support for better back, it is mounted to 1.3667 to 18 hours.

CDN / JPY – Same trend

Nippon side, the euro followed the same "trend" * weekly against the yen. The single currency began a decline of more than 400 pips against the yen. On Monday, the euro / yen was quoted at 127.70 to touch a low of 123.40 yen. But from the response Trichet yesterday, the euro strengthened to 125.60 yen to return.

The yen fell for the sixth straight session against the euro, with one course from Wednesday to 127.07 yen against 126.83 yen the day before.

GBP / USD – Sterling held up better than the euro

Across the Channel, the BoE (Bank of England) has also left interest rates unchanged at 0.5%, indicating that this was not the time to make an adjustment of rates.

Monetary side, the pound sterling, however, fared better than the euro against the dollar. Like British macro-economic figures emerged this week (GDP 0.4% and manufacturing output up 1.3%), the pound has evolved into a "range *" between 1.5130 and 1.5320 dollar.

* The cable is able to break this channel by treating up to 1.5473 dollar.

Against the yen, the pound again the delay and found almost the level of 144.21 yen on Monday.

CHF / EUR – Swiss Franc still going strong

On Wednesday, the Swiss franc 1.4362 per euro symbol. This is a very strong for the Swiss franc, which traded in 2009 almost all the time between 1.50 and 1.54.

Since the beginning of the year, the Swiss Frabce climbed more than 5%. This is not the business of the Swiss Central Bank, whose foreign exchange policy is heckled.

The yuan under the spotlight of the world

On Wednesday, Ben Bernanke, who appeared before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, reiterated that "the United States must continue to press China to bring it to revalue its currency, the yuan."Barack Obama this week's encounter homolgue Chinese President Hu Jintao on China's trade deficit background.

Most economists agree that the currency is undervalued – by 40% according to analysts and has been used to obtain an economy more oriented toward exports to domestic consumption.

On the one hand, in case of revaluation, China would be ready to counter the speculative bubbles that threaten, and inflationary pressures. But then again, remember that a more expensive yuan will be more expensive for the "Western" to fill all Chinese products.And they will have the effect of melt exchange reserves in dollars of the Chinese, which does allow them to buy as many more U.S. Treasury Bonds, and therefore finance the debt of the United States …

* Definitions

• Forex: For Foreign Exchange, or foreign exchange market

• Technical analysis: analyst or chartist. She studied graphic evolution courses. The research in the historical price behavior involved in a situation to predict the evolution of financial securities.

• Pips: Price Interest Point. Unit rating for foreign currency. It designates the last digit used: in the case of the euro, the fourth decimal place.

• Trend: trend.

• Range: range.

• Support: value as the price has very little chance to pass down.

• Resistant: value as the price has very little chance to overtake on the rise.

• EUR: Euro, USD: U.S. Dollar, or U.S. dollar JPY Japan Yen or Japanese yen, GBP: British Pound, CHF: Swiss franc.