The government has yet to release an estimate of how much damage the demonstrations have dealt to the economy. Le Maire’s ministry estimated last month that large retailers had seen a 15 percent drop in revenues and small businesses a drop of up to 40 percent. Beyond the costs to the private sector, there’s the considerable hit to public coffers from concessions made to the protesters. This week Macron scrapped the planned rises in fuel taxes which first sparked the protests among car-reliant workers in small-town and rural France. “The president fixed a course for respecting our European commitments, reducing our expenditure, reducing our debt and reducing our taxes.

Source: Egypt Independent December 09, 2018 16:41 UTC