Word: frenchness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...dose of expansion. Charles de Gaulle's stubbornly conservative economic policies, aimed at strengthening the franc and avoiding inflation, slowed the country's real economic growth to a point (4.4% last year) that was unhealthy for both France and its Common Market trading partners. The output of French factories rose a mere 2.2% in 1967 and, as a consequence, one-fifth of the country's industrial capacity lay idle early this year. The resulting unemployment plainly aggravated the social unrest that welled into revolt during...
Paradoxically, that cushion of unused plant and manpower, plus the country's still ample $4.75 billion reserves, is what now gives France its opportunity for an economic rebound without serious inflation. Despite the staggering wage gains of French labor (13% to 14% for all of 1968), the Gaullist government aims at holding price increases to 3% during the last half of this year. It is relying on what one Finance Ministry official calls "a battery of tools to regulate prices without actually enforcing price controls." Under the French contrat de programme, for example, thousands of industrial and retail firms...
Delicate Manipulation. Even if the government can keep a lid on prices-and that is a big if-the French economy may well require more delicate manipulation in the months ahead. Unemployment is still rising, and some industries plan to lay off nonessential workers to help meet their added payroll costs. Thousands of small firms are expected to go out of business entirely when the full impact of the wage raises hits them in the fall. Despite exchange controls forbidding most Frenchmen from taking more than $200 a year out of the country, the flight of capital remains a drain...
Like a racing driver skidding on a turn, France is stepping on the throttle in the hope of regaining the economic straightaway. It is a difficult maneuver but, if it works, the French economy by the end of next year could wind up in better shape than before...
...Communist nations. The Soviet merchant fleet has been ranging beyond bloc trade routes for years, of course, but never have its excursions been quite so bold. At stake in the London confrontation are shipping revenues of about $192 million a year, which are now shared by the Italian, French, West German, Dutch, Scandinavian and British lines that form the in-group serving trade routes between Europe and Australia. Last year the Russians sent six ships to Australian ports to pick up 146,000 tons of wool destined for the Soviet Union. Bargaining for a bigger piece of the action this...