Despite previous calls by France’s Socialist government to rein in financial markets, the government’s firm stand against a proposal to tax intraday trading is yet another sign of its waning political will to curb speculative trading, and force the financial sector to significantly contribute to public finances, The Wall Street Journal Money Beat blog reported.

The chief executive of Air France-KLM, the largest foreign shareholder in Alitalia, said on Wednesday that he had not ruled out the possibility of participating in a fresh bailout of the struggling Italian flagship carrier as it scrambles to produce a plan to shore up its dwindling cash reserves, the International Herald Tribune reported. But given the weak financial position of the French-Dutch group, which owns 25 percent of Alitalia, any assistance would be subject to strict conditions, he said.

In France, clear signs of recovery are confounded by other indications that the country is still struggling to get back on a sustainable growth path, the Financial Times reported. This week, as the government prepared to unveil its full 2014 budget on Wednesday, the September Markit purchasing managers’ index for manufacturing and services showed a move back into growth for the first time in 18 months. The OECD club of rich countries recently forecast that the economy as a whole would grow by 0.3 per cent this year – against its previous projection of a 0.3 per cent contraction.

Air France-KLM will strengthen its role in Italian airline Alitalia SpA, Italian transport minister Maurizio Lupi said on Monday, Reuters reported. "I expect that Air France will strongly reaffirm that Alitalia is a strategic asset for Air France, and therefore that there will be a strengthening of Air France's role," Lupi said at the margins of an industry conference in Milan.

Belgian financial group Dexia has entered into exclusive talks with New York Life Investments to sell its asset management unit, it said late on Thursday. The group, which has to sell Dexia Asset Management as part of a deal with European regulators in exchange for state aid it received in recent years, did not say how much New York Life Investments planned to offer. Dexia had initially agreed to sell the asset management arm to Hong Kong-based GCS Capital for 380 million euros ($507 million), but that deal fell through in July.

France has stepped up its assault on tax havens by blacklisting Bermuda, British Virgin Islands and Jersey, in a sudden move set to impose heavy penalties on thousands of French individuals and businesses, the Financial Times reported. The three offshore centres have been added to a list of “non-co-operative jurisdictions”, triggering withholding taxes of up to 75 per cent on payments from France.

The French government has unveiled a much-anticipated reform of its deficit-hit pension system, raising the level and duration of contributions but avoiding some of the measures demanded by the EU and others seeking a more radical overhaul, the Financial Times reported. Anxious to avoid an outbreak of social conflict that accompanied previous reform efforts, the government stuck to a promise by President François Hollande not to raise the prevailing minimum retirement age of 62, as many other European countries have done, and as Brussels recommended.

France's stagnant economy has thwarted most of President François Hollande's economic plans, leaving him reliant on state-sponsored jobs to deliver his key remaining objective: curbing rising unemployment by the end of the year, The Wall Street Journal reported. A primary vehicle for government efforts to buoy the job market is the financing of up to 75% of the cost of thousands of jobs for young, low-skilled workers. Over 40,000 youths have been channeled into such jobs so far this year, and the government predicts that number to rise to 100,000 by the end of December.

The European Union on Tuesday gave approval to a financial guarantee from the French state for PSA Peugeot Citroën's in-house banking unit, saying the aid is essential to help the ailing auto maker return to health, The Wall Street Journal reported. Apart from the loan guarantee, the move gives Peugeot a vote of confidence for a restructuring plan made necessary by the collapse of the European auto market.

Europe’s long-running economic troubles have been, for the most part, confined to the feeble countries of Europe: Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy. But more and more they are coming home to roost in France, raising questions about whether one of the Continent’s biggest economies may become the next sick man of Europe, the International Herald Tribune reported. By many measures, France is already moored in malaise.