French manufacturing production increased by just 0.3 % m/m (-1.6% y/y) in August, confirming the lacklustre state of the economy. Regarding the more fundamental issue of public finance, France is not on track towards meeting the 3.7% (of GDP) deficit target defined in the Stability Programme last spring. This year’s cumulated general government deficit as of August 2013 was € 66.7 bn which is around 4.3% of this year’s expected nominal GDP. Admittedly, this figure does not necessarily represent the whole budget and also not the exact Maastricht deficit definition. But it still gives an indication of the deficit being again higher than what was aimed for
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Nordea