France emerges from stagnation but jobless rate grows

eiffeltowerThe French economy rallied over 2015 allowing the country to close its books with a 1.1% increase.

It was the largest leap in four years after three long years of stagnation.

In 2014, the economy rose by .09%, so last year the economy was able to capitalise on that start.

"2015 was the year of the recovery," Finance Minister Michel Sapin told AFP, predicting that the trend would "intensify in 2016" and spark employment.

He said the fact that growth continued even in the fourth quarter at a time of devastating extremist attacks showed that “the French did not give up”.

Consumer spending in the eurozone’s second largest economy rose during the year by 1.4% and business investment grew 2%.

But recovery appears still to be some way off as 2015 was also the year in which the country suffered a new record high for unemployment of 10.6%.

The number of people actively seeking work rose to 3.59 million and that figure soars to 5.48 million when part-time workers looking for full-time jobs are included.

President Francois Hollande this month announced €2.0 billion package of measures to tackle the stubbornly elevated rate, saying it was a "state of economic emergency".

He has said that he would not run for re-election next year unless unemployment fell “significantly”.

Economics reckon the economy needs to grow by at least 1.5% to achieve this.

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