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Minister: France May See Deepest post-WW2 Downturn This Year

Reuters

   PARIS - France will likely see its deepest economic downturn this year
   since the end of World War Two, far surpassing the slump seen after the
   global financial crisis, its finance minister said on Monday.

   Bruno Le Maire told a Senate hearing by teleconference that eurozone's
   second-biggest economy would likely contract more than it did in 2009.

   "That shows the magnitude of the economic shock we are facing," he
   said.

   The government estimated last month in an emergency budget update that
   the economy would contract 1% thisyear, buthas since indicated that it
   would have to revise that figure.

   With the French economy currently running at two-thirds of normal
   levels, each month of government-imposed confinement could knock 3
   percentage pointsoff ofgrowth, the INSEE official stats agency
   estimated last month.

   Some 5 million French workers --one out of four in the private sector
   --have been put on furloughssubsidizedby the state to avoid mass
   permanent layoffs, theLabourMinistry said on Monday.

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