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Episode details

World Service,23 Oct 2013,17 mins

The French Malaise

Business Daily

Available for over a year

France isn't the sick man of Europe! So says the French Finance Minister, defending his government's policies in the face of a dangerously sluggish economic performance. In an interview for Business Daily, Pierre Moscovici says that reform of country's restrictive labour laws is underway and denies that a controversial 75% tax rate will have a negative impact on the country's competitiveness. But Professor Brigitte Granville of Queen Mary University London disagrees. She believes high taxes, restrictive trade practices and a bloated welfare state are stifling France's potential. And in a report from Paris, Paul Moss tells us why the French want to right to shop on Sundays.

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