France ‘on brink of over-indebtedness’, PM Bayrou warns • FRANCE 24 English

And for the today’s business news, Yuka Roya joins me now on set. Hi Yuka. Hi Jenn. So the French Prime Minister France Beu is uh seeking to garner support for his very unpopular and controversial budget plan and he defended that or he attempted to defend that in a news conference today. In a news conference today indeed. Well, it’s going to be a busy week for the French prime minister. He is uh is set to address a labor union conference on Tuesday and a meeting of France’s main business lobby on Thursday. At today’s press conference, France warned that France was facing an immediate danger of falling into over overindbtedness. That’s when a nation owes more than it can repay. He said that the debt servicing cost will become the largest expenditure this year, surpassing that of education uh or that of defense. Let’s take a listen to him. France cannot ignore this danger. It cannot stand idly by. It is heading for disaster if it does not take the courageous but still possible and bearable decisions that are necessary and that we are debating. And as you said, Jenny, the 2026 budget plan outlined in mid July has been deeply unpopular. Unions are threatening to bring France to a standstill with a general strike on the 10th of September. It calls for 44 billion euros in spending cuts with the goal of bringing public deficit down to 4.6% of GDP. The proposed measures include reducing the number of public holidays, deep cuts to unemployment benefits, and deping pensions from inflation. The prime minister said these measures would still be open for discussion and announced he’d call for a vote of no confidence on the 8th of September, but he stressed drastic action was still needed to reduce France’s debt pile. It stood at 60 billion euros last year, hitting 113% of GDP with budget deficit rising to 5.8% of GDP. That’s nearly twice the limit set by the European Union. The amount is set to rise to 66 billion this year and 75 billion e in 2026 at best according to the prime minister. If the current trajectory were to continue, it would hit 107 billion e by 2029. Right. And next up, it’s official. The US government has confirmed it’s taking a 10% stake in the chip company Intel. The President Donald Trump boosting he paid zero for it. Paying nothing. Well, the deal gives Washington a $9.9% stake in Intel in exchange for government grants. Around $2 billion Intel has received to date and a further $9 billion already awarded to it, but not yet paid. The funds were arranged under Biden era federal programs including the chips act. President Trump says he’s he he he would like to see more de deals like this with companies in other sectors as well. Intel meanwhile warns that being part governmentowned could hurt its international sales or limit its ability to secure future government grants. Simon Morris takes a look at what went wrong at the chip maker once the king of the semiconductor industry. It missed out on smartphones. It missed out on AI. And it lost billions in profit. Established in 1968, Intel became an industry giant through microprocessors, eventually becoming the brain of IBM PCs in 1981. In the9s, it continued to grow through the memorable Intel inside marketing campaign and introducing the Pentium microprocessor, increasing its former standard chip speed by 300 times. With the dotcom bubble in the 2000s, its valuation reached 495 billion. However, as the company failed to adapt, even refusing to make microchips for the Apple iPhone because it did not see the deal as profitable enough, Intel’s valuation would fall to below 100 billion in 2024 with semiconductor and chip competitors such as Nvidia far surpassing it. Nevertheless, US President Donald Trump was keen to acquire a stake in Intel. Now, with that, they’ve had some bad management over the years and and they got lost. And I said, “I think you should pay us 10% of your company.” And they said, “Yes.” And I said, “I think it would be good having the United States as your partner.” He agreed. And they’ve agreed to do it. And I think it’s a great deal for them. And I think it’s a great deal. Time will tell if the US government owning a 10% stake in the company will restore it to its former glory. The US president congratulated himself for buying a stake in the chipmaker on his website, True Social, adding that he intended to expand the strategy and will help those companies that make deals with America. The move comes as Washington battles for tech primacy over Beijing to whom over the years the US has restricted sales of semiconductors. And postal services in several European countries have stopped shipping packages to the United States. Tell us more. That’s right. Well, it’s another fallout of President Trump’s tariff policy. Uh the postal services in Europe, including in France, Germany, Italy, and Belgium, have decided to suspend shipping parcels to the US until they get more clarity on new rules. Now, since 1930, the United States has allowed items under $800 in value to enter the country tax-free. But on Friday this week, this exemption known as dimminimus is due to expire. That means millions of packages will face additional border checks every day. In recent years, it benefited companies like Teimu and Shien enormously with the number of deminimous shipments into the US, ballooning from 630 million in 2020 to nearly 1.4 billion last year, prompting the president to close that loophole. For shipping services, though, it will be a nightmare. All right. all our members who have uh even announced the actual suspension of the traffic. It is close to 20. The idea is to return to this new normal uh as soon as possible. Nevertheless, the development, the testing and implementation uh of the new solutions which uh comply with the new requirements uh takes time. And that’s all for now from the businesses desk.

French Prime Minister François Bayrou has warned that the nation is facing an “immediate danger” of over-indebtedness as he tried to rally support for his unpopular budget plan for 2026. Labour unions have threatened to bring France to a standstill with a general strike called for September 10. Plus, US President Donald Trump boasts that his government has paid “zero” for a 10 percent stake in embattled chipmaker Intel. 
#France #Budget #Debt

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9 comments

  1. 😅 That's what happens when you give away the benefits of the Western World to people who couldn't careless. They never paid into it and will cost everything.

  5. Russian bots in this comment section are crazy. This is exactly why France must support Ukraine, as Russia is trying to influence us, and as a sovereign nation that is unacceptable

  8. FRANCE MUST LEAVE ITS WEST AFRICAN COLONY LIKE NIGER , IVORYCOAST AND BALI THEY HAVE THE RIGHT TO SELF DETERMINATION AND SELF DEFENCE UNDER UN CHARTER..🇺🇳🇺🇳🇺🇳🇺🇳🇺🇳🇺🇳🇺🇳🇺🇳🇺🇳🇺🇳🇺🇳🇺🇳🇺🇳🇺🇳🇺🇳🇺🇳🇺🇳🇺🇳🇺🇳🇺🇳🇺🇳🇺🇳🇺🇳🇺🇳

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