French Finance Minister Le Maire on Sunday warned that the protests sweeping France were a “catastrophe” and bad for the economy.
“It’s a catastrophe for commerce, it’s a catastrophe for our economy,” Le Maire told reporters as he visited shops in Paris hit by looting during anti-government riots a day earlier.
Le Maire, speaking earlier on RTL, said he expected the protests to cut fourth-quarter growth by 0.1 percentage point but refused to comment on a possible downward revision of the full-year 1.7 percent figure.
“I am not going to revise the figures for the moment but we will certainly have 0.1 percentage point less growth at the end of this year.
“That cannot be made up. That is the reality — for commerce, small business owners who have seen their shops damaged, vandalized, looted,” Le Maire said.
“That is also the reality for the foreign investors who are looking at us… I see already the impact that has abroad and it is not good for (image) of our country,” he added.
