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Local France
23-05-2025
- Business
- Local France
Minister calls for France to become 'cashless society'
In a hearing before the Senate , justice minister Gérald Darmanin said that he proposed "le fin de l'argent liquide" - the end of cash - as the best method to tackle crime, specially drug dealing. He added: "A large proportion of fraud in everyday crime, even by criminal networks, is cash fraud". In recent years there are some European countries - such as Sweden - that have moved to a largely cashless society, albeit not necessarily in order to tackle crime. While cashless payments are becoming more common in France as more and more businesses take card payments or contactless card/phone payments, the country still uses plenty of cash. Advertisement It's rare for a business to not accept cash at all, although it does happen sometimes, most commonly at temporary stalls at markets or festivals or at pop-up businesses. During the pandemic France raised the limit for contactless payments to €50 to allow more contactless payments to take place. The year 2024 marked the first time that more card payments than cash payments happened in France. A survey conducted by Banque de France found that the card payments were the most popular means of payment with 62 percent of people saying this is their preferred method, well ahead of cash with 14 percent. However 60 percent of those surveyed said they believe it is important to have an option for cash payments - survey respondents said that cash payments allow anonymity (40 percent), enable immediate payment (37 percent) and better management of spending (31 percent). What are your experiences of cash payments in France? Do you find that businesses are more likely to welcome cash or cards? Please share your experiences in the comment section below
Daily Maverick
20-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
America's deindustrialisation began many years before China entered the equation
Part 2 in a five-part series. Read Part 1 here. Even in the late 1950s, stresses were building up in the US' external position. Having run external surpluses after World War 2, between 1958 and 1960 the US averaged annual balance of payments deficits of $3.7-billion, and gold started leaving the US. The 1960s extended these trends as the age of guns and butter grew out of Lyndon B Johnson's simultaneous pursuit of an expensive Vietnam War and his costly Great Society programme. (The Social Security Act was passed in 1968, the same year that Medicare and Medicaid were introduced.) By 1965, when US current account deficits were growing and shortfalls were being paid for more with printed US dollars than gold, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the French Minister of Finance, protested at the ' exorbitant privilege ' that the dollar's status as the global reserve currency gave the US. (Little could d'Estaing foresee just how exorbitant that privilege would become by 2025!) In 1973, the Gold Standard was replaced by fiat money The Bretton Woods system had presupposed that its guarantor, the US, would always run a current account surplus from which it could supply investment capital to the rest of the world. By the early 1970s, this was the dream of yesteryear: bullion was leaving Fort Knox for the likes of the Banque de France at an accelerating pace. The ensuing 1973 'Nixon Shock' — a complete suspension of the gold standard so delinking gold from the US dollar — was 'a shot that was heard around the monetary world' at a time when the US dollar was unquestionably the centre of the monetary universe. It quickly became clear that, with the era of the 1944 Bretton Woods Accord over, some hydra-headed construct would have to replace it: thus, the era of US dollar fiat money was born. By the end of the messy decade that was the 1970s — it saw rampant inflation and sky-high interest rates as well as frequent dislocations in global capital flows that even led Britain to seek International Monetary Fund assistance in 1976 — it was also apparent that the US would, indeed could, no longer be an exporter of capital to the rest of the world on a structural basis. The capital gamekeeper had turned poacher. Siamese Twins: the US's twin deficits, external trade and internal budget Because of its rising current account and budget deficits, the US thereafter had to be a net capital importer… or see the US dollar weaken materially, thereby risking compromising the US dollar's reserve currency status. Except briefly in 1991 (when the five-year bounce in US export competitiveness engineered by the 1985 Plaza Accord's controlled devaluation of the dollar was about to wear off), the world's largest and most capitalist economy has since had to rely on what Tennessee Williams called 'the kindness of strangers' — foreign savers — to balance its external account. As noted above, in 2024, foreigners sent more than $1-trillion of their surplus savings into US capital markets. A deeper dimension of this was that, with a budget deficit/net dissaving of 7.1% of GDP in 2024, notwithstanding the small positive savings of consumers and companies (collectively plus 6%), the US combined was not generating savings: it had a national negative net savings rate of 1%. In 2024 so much so that foreigners were for the first time being called upon to fill this dissaving gap. Exactly when Congress started to realise that foreign investors could be leant upon to fund a share of the US's ever growing federal deficit is impossible to pinpoint. Yet, especially since 2000, this dependency has been the underpinning reality of the US's fiscal expansionism. From 2008 to 2024, a mere 16 years, US federal debt grew more than fourfold, from $8-trillion to more than $34-trillion; it is now $37-trillion. This debt grew out of a combination of lower taxes and higher expenditure plus Covid-19 handouts. Yet for as long as the US dollar remained strong, foreigners underwrote an average of 30% of each recurring annual budget deficit. From 2000, the US Congress has in effect relied upon the monetisation of the US dollar's store of value function and used the proceeds to help fund its excess domestic budget expenditure. But the ructions in the US bond market since 2020 are hinting that the well of foreign savings that has provided this foreign cover financing may now be showing signs of running dry. The name's Bond, Treasury Bond If all those foreign savings did was to flow into US equity markets in the free market spirit of corporate capitalism, then at least this arrangement might seem to be justified. As Walter Wriston, the 1970s Chief Executive of Citicorp, famously observed: 'Capital goes where it is welcome and stays where it is well treated.' And US equity markets had a welcome mat unmatched worldwide. Yet US bond markets — which treated foreign capital well too — became an even more important destination, a fact that further anchored the US dollar's reserve currency status. For the 50 years that followed the 'Nixon Shock', the preferred destination for the bulk of the world's surplus savings has been not just the United States nor even its equity market, but the US bond market. Given that these foreign inflows helped tie together the US's Siamese Twin requirements — 'we need your savings to underwrite both our current account and, interrelatedly, our budget deficits' — it is hardly surprising that, in the 1980s, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher became self-serving champions of free-flowing global capital. To them, exchange controls became anathema to free markets. Thus, the many-headed financial hydra born in the 1970s has grown up into what it has become today: a bizarre creature where the Anglo-American combine — the US with 4.2% of world population, the UK with 0.8%, a combined 5% — consumes about 75% of globally mobile savings annually: in 2024, the US ran 65% of the world's current account deficits, the UK 10%. Underneath this external deficit, the combined budget deficits of the US and UK as a share of global budget deficits was close to 50%: 42% for the US, 8% for the UK. China 'didn't start the fire', even if it subsequently fanned it Bob Dylan saw the deindustrialisation of the US spreading before the rise of China when, back in 1983, table cloths started arriving from Malaysia and shirts from the Philippines. Job losses in industrial America were becoming commonplace. Elsewhere in Union Sundown, Dylan wrote: Well, you know lots of people are complaining that there is no work I say, 'Why you say that for When nothing you got is US made?' Rising capital inflows in Dylan's early 1980s helped drive the US dollar's appreciation, further reinforcing the deindustrialisation of the United States. Factories across America, notably in the Midwest (in what is today seen as hardcore Trump country), found they could no longer compete with often much lower priced foreign imports. By the 1990s, the value of the US dollar — admittedly recovering from its post-Plaza Accord lows — resumed its rise, appreciating 50% on a trade-weighted basis over the decade. More significantly, over the same period the US dollar was especially strong against Asia's currencies, particularly in the wake of 1997's Asian Financial Crisis: the Thai baht lost 60% of its value; the Korean won 47%; and the Indonesian rupiah 85%. Meanwhile the Chinese renminbi's value fell from 3.73 to the US dollar in the 1990s to 8.28 in 2000. By the turn of the century, searing heat from Asia was being directed towards the export competitiveness of the US' manufacturing industries. And that heat was not just on US export competitiveness. Foreign imports made huge inroads into the domestic US market too. Owners of US factories, if only to stay in business, were obliged to shutter them and instead import products from abroad: this only added salt to the wounds of America's now unemployed blue-collar workers. Retailers in the US, where margins were already tight, had little option but to stop buying 'Made in America ' and buy foreign instead, mostly from Asia. Since then, Walmart has earned the nickname of being 'the Great Mall of China'. Today 70% of Amazon's online offerings are made in China! After Deng Xiaoping's Southern Tour in 1992, which reinforced his 'reform and opening up' programme, Chinese products started entering the global market, and especially the higher priced US market. But it was only after 2001, when China joined the World Trade Organization, that the 1990s Chinese trickle turned into a flood. In 2001, like-for-like blue-collar job wages in the US were 33 times those of China. Middle America's workers stood no chance against those of the Middle Kingdom. A 2004 Business Week cover story declared the three scariest words in US industry to be 'The China Price'. Dylan again: When it costs too much to build it at home You just build it cheaper someplace else. Post-2000, the hydra-headed headed monster grew dramatically In 2000, the US current account deficit was already a negative $402-billion; by 2006, it had doubled to a negative $816-billion; last year, 2024, it was a negative $1.0-trillion. In parallel, (and the two events were not unrelated, if not tightly correlated) after 9/11 the US budget deficit was again growing considerably. In 2000, the US federal budget showed a small surplus of $240-billion; by 2006, it was a negative $250-billion; in 2024, it was a negative $1.8-trillion. The current account deficit was an annual total needing to be financed from abroad. But there was a cumulative total of these annual deficits that required matching capital inflows: the Net International Financial Position (NIFP). This is a measure of how much the US owes the world, less how much the world owes the US. In 1990, the NIFP was broadly balanced. In 2025, the US now owes the rest of the world $26-trillion, of which $9-trillion of that total is US Treasury Bonds alone. Of the Treasuries in issue not owned by the US government — $29-trillion — this means foreigners own 30%. Global savings glut = American consumption glut Ben Bernanke, still to become the Federal Reserve Board chairperson in 2006, was acutely aware of significant capital inflows that were needed not just to cover an ever-increasing US current account deficit, but also to help fund the ballooning US budget deficit. He realised that a significant share of global savings flows had to find their way into the US bond market to fund especially the budget deficit. In 2005, Bernanke famously attributed the US' growing current account deficit to what he dubbed 'the global savings glut'. In his US-centric view, Germany, Japan and Asia at large (led by a fast-rising China) were not spending enough on US exports to bring greater balance to world trade patterns. If one accepts his analysis, then there is an equal but opposite matching bookend explanation to his imbalance: the US must have likewise been enjoying an 'American consumption glut'. On the surface, part of this excess consumption manifested itself as a current account deficit, while beneath the surface the required matching capital inflows were partly being fed into funding the growing US budget deficit. It is a moot point as to whether the growing budget deficit then in turn fed US consumption (often then translated into a greater appetite for foreign imported goods) and so further increased that already rising current account deficit! DM
Local France
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Local France
La Belle Vie: What to do in France this summer and the benefits of a 'microclimate'
La Belle Vie is our regular look at the real culture of France – from language to cuisine, manners to films. This newsletter is published weekly and you can receive it directly to your inbox, by going to your newsletter preferences in 'My account'. It seems to be a rite of passage for French interior ministers to talk a big game about how they will make the rules stricter for people applying for French residency or nationality. Most recently, interior minister Bruno Retailleau sent out a special kind of memo - called a circulaire - to préfecture and interior ministry staff about how they ought to interpret and apply the 2024 immigration law. In reality, the memo will not lead to sweeping changes, but it does mean that some enforcement of existing rules could be stricter moving forward. There is one thing that remains - the dreaded French citizenship interview. Personally, I found my interview to be quite challenging. The fonctionnaire who asked my questions wanted to know things like the date that the Banque de France was founded, as well as how I see a lasting impact from Napoleon in modern life (aside from the Code Civile). It's never too early to start preparing. QUIZ: Could you pass the French citizenship interview? For readers who are considering applying for French citizenship - if you ever decide to do so, prepare yourself for a long wait. The process is slow and it involves lots of time spent refreshing the ANEF timeline page. I was told that after the interview it could take anywhere from seven months to a year to get a final answer. At earliest, that would mean that this summer I'll get to host a 'citizenship party'. I don't want to get ahead of myself, but if everything works out I want to have a big fête where I invite every French person I know to cook a dish or dessert that is typical of the region they come from. On second thoughts, I might do this even if the citizenship thing doesn't pan out. There are plenty of other things to look forward to this summer in France, from time spent sipping rosé en terrasse to picnics at the local park. 9 of the best things about summer in France Summer festivals are another highlight of the year. While I am sad that I'll be out of town for the main nighttime culture event - Fête de la Musique - I am looking forward to celebrating Nuit Blanche. For those who are considering a trip to the capital region, I highly recommend scheduling it for the weekend of June 7th. Nuit Blanche is the one night of the year where museums stay open all night long. This year there will be films screened outside, as well as the usual nighttime art exhibits and shows. Advertisement 29 unmissable festivals and events in France this summer One of the big events in the French cultural calendar is the Tour de France. I am always surprised to learn how many viewers the Tour de France gets on television each year. I decided to tune in for the first time last year - at the behest of The Local Europe's editor, Ben McPartland - and while I enjoy the cycling, the best part to me is the stunning French countryside on display. The Tour de France route this year goes through Normandy and Brittany in western France. Then, it snakes through the central Auvergne region, down to the south-west and the Pyrenees, and back up through the Alps for a grand ending in Paris. Advertisement The race will pass right by the central French city of Clermont-Ferrand, which was in the news recently. The city's mayor has sounded the alarm bells about the ground being 'Swiss cheese'. Here's what that means. 'Swiss cheese': Why this French city is worried about sinkholes The Tour de France tends to go through more remote villages in France. Oftentimes, when I try to find an illustration image for an article of a small French town, there might be four or five photos, with half of them being from that one time the Tour de France passed through. This has been especially true every time I have looked for photos to illustrate villages or rural life in the sparsely populated Ariège département. REVEALED: Where are the most remote parts of France? And finally, one topic of conversation I have found comes up from time to time when discussing where to buy a home in France is the 'microclimate'. Of course, microclimates are real, but it is a selling point I have heard used for many different parts of France (more so than other countries). Advertisement Previously, I had heard assertions that Brittany has several microclimates, including the southern and comparatively sunnier Morbihan département. Most recently, I learned that many consider Nice to be a microclimate, and that includes the city's own tourism website. Does Nice really have a microclimate?
L'Orient-Le Jour
02-05-2025
- Business
- L'Orient-Le Jour
French expertise 'crucial' for Lebanon's recovery, asserts Souhaid
BEIRUT — New governor of Banque du Liban (BDL), Karim Souhaid, announced in a statement that he had met with François Villeroy de Galhau, governor of the Banque de France (BDF), and Bertrand Dumont, director general of the French Treasury, in Paris on April 28 and 29, 2025. This visit "is part of a series of exchanges aimed at strengthening the long-standing relationship between the Banque du Liban and French monetary and financial institutions," wrote Souhaid. "At this critical juncture in Lebanon's economic journey, such partnerships are indispensable. France's in-depth expertise and institutional leadership—particularly in managing and resolving complex monetary and banking crises at the European level—remain of crucial relevance for Lebanon's ongoing recovery process," the statement issued Tuesday evening highlights. According to BDL, these meetings take place in the context of a visit by a Lebanese delegation representing the Lebanese presidency and government to Washington, during the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) last week. During these days, the delegation, led by Lebanese Finance Minister Yassine Jaber and Economy Minister Amer Bsat, as well as the governor, met with officials from both organizations to advance the reform dossier aimed at reviving the country, in crisis since 2019, and funding reconstruction in Lebanon, severely affected by the war between Israel and Hezbollah. 'Strategic Support' The delegation also met with officials from the U.S. State Department and Treasury, as well as French officials, including Dumont. The BDL noted that these exchanges were constructive. According to the BDL statement, the director general of the French Treasury "reiterated France's willingness to provide strategic support and guidance to improve the institutional efficiency of the Banque du Liban and enhance its role as a credible partner in all matters related to monetary and banking reform." During the meeting at the Banque de France, François Villeroy de Galhau "discussed the role of the Banque du Liban in developing and implementing solutions in close coordination with the Lebanese government, as well as the importance of maintaining a strong and transparent partnership with the IMF," to which the government of Nawaf Salam and President Joseph Aoun, in place since the beginning of the year, have renewed Lebanon's request for membership in a financial assistance program. "The exchanges were constructive and forward-looking. Governor Villeroy de Galhau reaffirmed the commitment of the Banque de France and the French government to support Lebanon and its central bank through relevant advice, strategic assistance, training programs, and the transfer of best practices aligned with international standards. This collaboration is part of a broader effort to modernize institutional frameworks and strengthen the operational capacities of the BDL," wrote the Banque du Liban. A week ago, Lebanon voted on a law updating its banking secrecy legislation, in a manner deemed satisfactory by the IMF. To persuade the Fund to go further, the country must also adopt a banking resolution law, which sets the framework for a sector restructuring aligned with international standards. A draft law, recently adopted by the Council of Ministers, is set to be reviewed Wednesday by the Finance and Budget committee. In another statement issued Wednesday in response to allegations against it in the Lebanese media, the BDL announced it is "working on a first version of a restructuring plan for the banking sector, which will be discussed with Lebanese authorities, the IMF, and international experts," and advocated for a "collective, balanced, and accepted approach by all parties, aiming to guarantee the gradual repayment of deposits and economic recovery." On Tuesday, Yassine Jaber met with officials of the Association of Banksof Lebanon (ABL), to whom he stated that the country's priority was to allow the sector, which had illegally frozen tens of billions of dollars in deposits during the crisis, to start functioning normally again — a message he had also conveyed from Washington. During the spring meetings, Governor Karim Souhaid issued a statement to IMF officials in which he assured that Lebanon was "ready to make difficult choices, to bear the political cost of reform, and to hold itself accountable." He also emphasized that the BDL's top priority is to preserve the state's assets while working, alongside the government and the banking sector, to restore the solvency and credibility of the financial system. The decisions of the central bank before and during the crisis were one of the factors that contributed to the country's collapse.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
French trade deficit increases in February as transport exports lag
France's trade in goods deficit rose to €6.4 billion in February, up from €5.8bn in January, as well as above analyst expectations of €5.4bn, according to Banque de France. This was mainly because of a drop in exports of transport equipment and agricultural products. Electrical, mechanical and computer equipment exports also fell. On the other hand, the surplus on trade in services went up marginally in February, coming in at €4.1bn, up from €4bn in January. The seasonally and working-day adjusted current account deficit touched €1.9bn in February, compared to a downwardly revised deficit of €1.3bn in January. This was the biggest current account deficit since last April. France is currently dealing with a fiscal deficit and has launched measures such as spending cuts and tax increases in order to handle it. The country has a goal of decreasing its fiscal deficit to 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) by this year, before bringing it below the EU's 3% limit by 2029. However, France has revealed that it would not be implementing more spending cuts, in case a trade war, caused by the US' tariffs against the EU, harms the French economy. Related France and China edge closer to resolving cognac import trade dispute German exports to the US grew in February as firms anticipated tariffs French imports increased 2.4% on a monthly basis to €57.5bn in February, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Imports were mainly boosted by rising purchases of communication and publishing products, which grew 13.8%. Natural hydrocarbons imports increased 5.2%, whereas transport equipment exports grew 7.2%. Imports from the Middle East into France advanced 15.7%, whereas imports from the EU rose 5.6%. Asian imports into France also inched up 1.1%, with American imports increasing 0.8% as well. Exports from France stayed unchanged in February, at €49.7bn, the same as January. Exports of forestry, agricultural and fishing products rose 8.7%, whereas natural hydrocarbons exports inched up 3.1%. However, transport equipment exports fell 4.9%, with refined petroleum products and coke exports also declining 2.2%. Exports from France to the EU dropped 1.4%, with exports to the Middle East also plunging 7.3%. On the other hand, exports to Asia rose 4.4%, with exports to America also surging 8%, while African exports grew 3.3%. Sign in to access your portfolio
