Crédit Agricole SA will likely have to pour a further €600 million ($779 million) to €700 million into its flailing Greek unit before it will be able sell the subsidiary, according to people from both the private and public sectors with knowledge of the sales process, The Wall Street Journal reported. The French lender's once grand ambitions in southern Europe have been badly bruised by the sovereign-debt crisis.

Greece should be allowed more time to meet deficit targets set by international lenders provided it is sincere about reforming its economy, French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on Sunday, Reuters reported. Near-bankrupt Greece needs the European Union and International Monetary Fund's blessing on spending cuts worth nearly 12 billion euros ($16 billion) to unlock its next tranche of aid, without which it faces default and a potential exit from the euro zone. "The answer must not be a Greek exit from the euro zone," Ayrault said in an interview with news website Mediapart.

France's enduring ability to defy economic gravity - adding new taxes on top of one of the highest fiscal burdens in Europe, preserving short working hours, job protection, early retirement and generous welfare benefits - is about to be tested, Reuters reported in an analysis. President Francois Hollande has promised to bring the deficit down to 3 percent of gross domestic product in next week's 2013 budget from a forecast 4.5 percent this year.

French President François Hollande on Sunday sought to brace the nation for its toughest budgetary effort of the past six decades, as he outlined a raft of austerity measures—including a controversial tax on the rich—to shore up public finances. In a television interview, Mr. Hollande said he has given himself two years to turn around France's economy and acknowledged the gravity of that task. He said the country's growth prospects have clearly deteriorated and significantly downgraded the growth forecasts to "barely above zero" for this year and "about 0.8%" for 2013.

Loss-making French spirits group Belvedere is confident that its creditors will approve a plan submitted in August to repay its debt and would consider all options including a tie-up with a larger rival to achieve this, the company said on Thursday. Belvedere, the owner of France's best-selling Scotch whiskey William Peel, is on its third attempt to emerge from court protection from creditors, with whom it has been battling for four years.

The French government has agreed to rescue Crédit Immobilier de France (CIF), after conceding defeat in attempts to find a buyer for the struggling mortgage provider, the Irish Times reported. CIF, which lends mainly to poor households, has been badly hit by a reduced flow of funding from credit markets and tighter rules on capital requirements for banks. It had been up for sale for a number of months but its fate appeared to be sealed last week when Moody’s cut its credit rating, saying it was in effect locked out of capital markets.

France’s biggest banks are preparing to pull out of Greece in the coming weeks, the latest large international business to abandon the country as it grapples with a debilitating recession and nagging questions about its future in the euro zone, the International Herald Tribune reported. Société Générale said Wednesday that it was in advanced discussions to sell its 99.1 percent stake in Geniki Bank, one of Greece’s biggest financial institutions, to Piraeus Bank of Greece.

Crédit Agricole SA said Tuesday that it could seal a deal to sell its troubled Greek bank within weeks, a move that would draw a line under its disastrous foray into Greece, but left open questions about the cost of such an exit for France's third-largest publicly listed bank, The Wall Street Journal reported. Crédit Agricole, which once had grand ambitions in southern Europe, has been badly bruised by the sovereign-debt crisis.

Barclays is set to assume control of debt-burdened French poultry group Doux next month, a union said on Thursday, enabling the UK bank to pursue a turnaround plan for the business supported by the family that controls the company, Reuters reported. Barclays is expected to take an 80 percent stake in Doux, which went into court administration in early June, in exchange for forgiving debt of 140 million euros ($175 million). The plan received implicit backing from a French court on Aug. 1. "The transformation of Doux's Barclays debt into 80 percent of its capital should be implemented on Sept.

As post-election euphoria wanes, French President Francois Hollande returns from vacation under pressure to show that beyond dismantling the legacy of his predecessor he can act decisively at home while grappling with recession in Europe, Reuters reported. Awaiting him are the crisis that still haunts the euro zone, fragile relations with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and French political opponents who accuse him of sunning himself on the beach while Syria slides into chaos.