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Episode details

World Service,15 May 2014,28 mins

Eurozone recovery falters as Italy's economy shrinks and France suffers stagnation

World Business Report

Available for over a year

The French economy is not growing and Italy, which emerged from recession just last year is shrinking again. On the day we learned that the Eurozone economy as a whole grew by just 0.2% in the first three months of the year, World Business Report discusses the challenges facing the EU with Jennifer McKeown, from Capital Economics in London and Sophie Pedder, Paris bureau chief of The Economist. The people of Switzerland vote this weekend on the prospect of passing a law to make the minimum wage about $25 an hour. Imogen Foulkes reports from Geneva on the issues being debated by the Swiss ahead of the referendum. We also go to the movies as the Cannes Film Festival is in full swing. A comedy movie set in Spain that highlights the culture of the Basque region is on show at the big screen in France. We analyse if there is a profit in focussing on a comic tale of love, in a country which has been deeply divided by calls for autonomy in the north.

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