France’s economic woes are the result of poor policy choices at home and Paris should stop blaming its problems on the strength of the euro, center-right candidate for European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters in an interview.
The former prime minister of Luxembourg and long-time head of the Eurogroup forum of eurozone finance ministers spoke days after French Prime Minister Manuel Valls described the strong euro as a threat to French economic growth and jobs.
Valls, a Socialist, urged the European Central Bank (ECB) to adjust policy to weaken the single currency, which reached a two-and-a-half year high just below US$1.40 on Thursday before comments from ECB President Mario Draghi pushed it lower.
Photo: EPA
France, the second biggest economy in the eurozone, has been dogged by high unemployment and weak growth, casting doubt on its ability to meet EU-mandated deficit targets.
The economic weakness was behind French President Francois Hollande’s decision to reshuffle his government last month, bringing in Valls.
“I don’t believe France is the sick man of Europe,” Juncker said after an EU election campaign appearance in Berlin on Thursday. “But I do caution against looking for the causes of what is partly the result of [its] own mistakes somewhere other than at home.”
Juncker, 59, said the strong currency had created problems for a number of eurozone member states, but that its level was the same for all.
“If France has a tougher time than other countries, then the reasons for this are to be found in France, not in exchange rates,” he said.
Speaking earlier, Juncker suggested that the German economy was doing better than France’s because it was run by a center-right leader.
Juncker is the lead candidate for the European People’s Party (EPP) in scheduled May 25 elections for the European Parliament. His main rival for the presidency is Social Democrat Martin Schulz, a German.
In comments that may be more warmly received in France, Juncker also backed the idea of European “industrial champions,” saying governments should use planemaker Airbus SAS as a model in promoting tie-ups across other sectors.
In the past weeks, the French government has intervened to prevent US conglomerate General Electric Co from taking over the energy assets of French rival Alstom SA, by encouraging Germany’s Siemens AG to make a counter-bid.
Paris has argued that a transaction with Siemens has the potential to create two European champions — one in energy, the other in trains. However, Alstom’s management would clearly prefer to sell to GE, and Siemens seems lukewarm on the idea of a deal.
In the interview, Juncker defended the right of governments to intervene in corporate deals that affect their interests, describing Airbus — the Toulouse-based commercial jet manufacturer created by France and Germany as a rival to Boeing Co — as a success story to be copied.
“When the opportunity presents itself to put a [national] champion on a broader footing, we should try to launch European champions,” Juncker said. “Governments shouldn’t decide for companies, but governments have an interest and a right to be part of such decisions.”
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained