OECD slashes France's 2013 growth forecast to 0.3 pct

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on Tuesday slashed its 2013 growth forecast for France to 0.3 percent. The figure is lower than 1.2 percent in the organization's May outlook and the government target of 0.8 percent. The country's GDP will grow by 1.3 percent in 2014, the Paris-based organization said in its newly released Economic Outlook report. France's budget gap would be 3.4 percent of GDP in 2013, higher than the government's target of 3 percent, according to the report. The OECD called on France "to launch a comprehensive medium-term strategy of fiscal consolidation, spending cuts and structural reforms to boost confidence and raise competitiveness and growth." As to the government's competitiveness pact, the first important step to beef up the country's main activities and create more jobs, the OECD recommended "a wide range of growth-inducing reforms of the tax structure, education, and labour and product markets" to regain market confidence.