PARIS: French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe unveiled an ambitious program of tax cuts and reduced public spending on Tuesday designed to boost investment and end the country’s reliance on state borrowing. The government sailed through a vote of confidence held afterwards, with 370 MPs in the lower house backing it and 67 opposed. Tackling France’s “addiction to public spending” was a priority, he said, warning that the public debt now totalled 2.1 trillion euros ($2.3 trillion), nearly the equivalent of an entire year’s economic output. “We are dancing on a volcano that is rumbling ever louder,” Philippe told the newly elected lower house. The reforms, which Macron wants to fast-track through parliament using decrees, face stiff resistance from leftist opponents.

Source: Manila Times July 04, 2017 17:26 UTC