France

Bidders for Sanofi’s consumer healthcare unit are revising their offers in part to address concerns around potential liabilities related to a brand that sold talcum powder, Bloomberg News reported. French pharmaceutical company Sanofi had asked suitors to revise their proposals for the Opella business, Bloomberg News reported earlier this week. The new bids may exclude parts of the Gold Bond business, a brand that historically sold talc-based products, or seek to leave any future legal risks with Sanofi.

French manufacturing output grew more quickly than expected in August, a rare bright sign in a sector that has struggled to recover from recent shocks, the Wall Street Journal reported. Output from goods-producing industries was 1.6% higher over the month, according to figures set out Friday by France’s statistics agency. Production increased across various sectors, including pharmaceuticals, transportation and automotive. The uptick in factory production comes despite signs of continued slowdown in the sector, according to business surveys published last month.

France plans around €60 billion ($66.4 billion) in spending cuts and tax hikes next year as Prime Minister Michel Barnier seeks to claw back a widening budget deficit and bolster investor confidence in the country, Bloomberg News reported. The savings are required to bring the budget shortfall to 5% of economic output from around 6.1% this year, government officials said in a briefing to journalists on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with internal rules.

In the seven years that he has been France’s president, Emmanuel Macron has bet on tax cuts for the wealthy and for corporations as a recipe for stimulating the economy. His new government is about to tear up that playbook. Faced with a rapid deterioration in the nation’s finances, Mr.

The Bank of France cut its forecast for French inflation next year to well below the European Central Bank’s 2% target, adding to signals encouraging policymakers to pursue interest-rate cuts, Bloomberg News reported. The pace of annual price increases in the euro area’s second-largest economy will ease to 1.5% on average in 2025 from 2.5% in 2024, the Bank of France said in its September economic forecasts. That’s lower than the 1.7% it predicted in June, due mainly to expectations of weaker electricity prices. The Bank of France expects the rate to rise to 1.7% in 2026, it said on Tuesday.

Hosting the Olympic Games gave a boost to France's service sector in August but the country's political crisis still clouds the economic outlook, the central bank said on Tuesday in its monthly business survey, Reuters reported. The euro zone's second-biggest economy is on course for underlying growth of 0.1-0.2% in the third quarter from the previous month, the Bank of France said, leaving its estimate unchanged. The Olympics could add another quarter percentage point of growth as the Games increased activity in hospitality, event management and security, particularly in the Paris region.

France’s rate of price rises eased below the European Central Bank’s target this month and the economy grew a little less than previously thought, adding impetus to calls for cuts to interest rates in the eurozone, the Wall Street Journal reported. Consumer prices rose 1.9% on year over the month in August, down from 2.3% a month earlier, according to provisional figures published Friday. That was in line with the expectations of economists polled by The Wall Street Journal and marks the first time in three years that inflation has come below the ECB’s targeted 2% rate.