FrenchFrench economy minister Emmanuel Macron on Sunday proposed a 300 billion euro "New Deal" in Europe to boost investment and growth, while promising to accelerate fiscal reforms at home, reports The Times of India. "Europe needs a New Deal," he said in an interview published in the weekly Journal du Dimanche, evoking the original New Deal which transformed the US economy following the Great Depression of the 1930s. Macron's comments came after Dutch finance minister and Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem said France should not be granted extra time to bring its budget deficit within the EU limit of three percent of GDP.
Macron, explaining his vision, said: "France engages to pursue and even intensify its reforms; the European Union announces a grand relaunch plan through 300 billion ($379 billion) of investments." Such a 'New Deal' would allow France to get hold of 10 billion euros of supplementary investment funding each year, he added. "Everybody wins, while at the moment everyone is losing. The slowdown of the German economy is a new setback." Finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on Thursday denied Germany was falling into recession and stuck to his opposition to higher spending to revive the eurozone economy.
