French Economy Minister Says Austerity Measures Aggravate Unemployment: Report

(RTTNews) - The deficit reduction measures aggravated unemployment in France as well as Europe, French Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg said in an interview with Le Monde daily on Saturday.

He criticized that forced fiscal consolidation is a financial absurdity because it makes stabilizing public finance impossible. Also, it throws Europeans into the arms of extremist parties, he said.

In the second quarter, the second largest Eurozone economy stagnated forcing the government to discard its 2014 deficit target.

France GDP would grow by only around 0.5 percent this year, suggesting that the public deficit would top 4 percent of GDP and miss its 3.8 percent target, Finance Minister Michel Sapin told Le Monde on August 14.