French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Saturday the euro was too strong, and that French President Francois Hollande would take initiatives to boost growth and employment after the May 22 European elections.
“We need a more appropriate monetary policy, because the level of the euro is too high. We need a major change that makes our monetary policy a tool for growth and job creation, a tool that serves the people,” Valls said at a meeting of young European socialists close to Paris.
“With that purpose in mind, the president of the republic will take initiatives after the European elections,” Valls added, reiterating comments he made last week.
Valls told the French parliament on Tuesday that his government wants talks to address what it considers the excessive strength of the euro once a new European Parliament is in place later this year, and called for the EU to boost growth.
Last month, outspoken French Minister of the Economy Arnaud Montebourg said France wants eurozone countries to meet soon in order to discuss the euro’s strength and monetary polic, and urged the European Central Bank to adopt unconventional policies to weaken the euro.
He also called for a new monetary policy based on the model of the US Federal Reserve and said European Central Bank President Mario Draghi should force the euro’s exchange rate lower.
The euro is up more than 5 percent against the dollar over the past year, hurting exports by making them less competitive on international markets and weighing on profits of European companies.
In the past weeks, several blue-chip European companies have complained about the euro’s strength as they released first-quarter earnings data.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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