reduction

Unemployment in France fell overall during the first quarter of 2017 to 9.6%, down from 10% in the fourth quarter 2016, with a 1.4% drop in the jobless rate among 15-24-year-olds to 22.3%.

The unemployment rate in France dropped below 10% during the second quarter of this year, and for the first time since 2012, according to figures released on Thursday by the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE). The news appears to pave the way for President François Hollande to announce his re-election bid in next year’s presidential elections but, as Martine Orange reports in this analysis of the figures, the slight fall in official jobless numbers cannot mask the grim reality of France’s endemic unemployment.

Despite initial opposition by government, the VAT rate of 20 percent on tampons and sanitary towels will be reduced to 5.5 percent.

Burgundy and Beaujolais regions notably face partial evaporation of annual production as unusually high temperatures are shrinking grapes.

Levies on capital gains, raised last year, will be reduced by 50 percent for assets held for more than two years and by 65 percent after eight years.