Global investment banks are set to record income from fees from their debt, equity and mergers and acquisitions business, new research shows.
The economy of France has slowed in November on the back of lower than expected spending on manufactured goods.
The rising value of the euro against the dollar is impacting on exports, the fallout from the US subprime crisis is being felt through higher borrowing costs and the past few months have seen record-breaking oil prices.
All these are driving down the purchasing power of French households and spending on manufactured goods fell 0.1 per cent in November, according to the national statistics office Insee.
Purchases of textiles fell four per cent last month but car sales were up 3.4 per cent. Manufacturing spending accounts for around 15 per cent of the economy.
Insee has forecast further slowing in the first six months of 2008 after its 0.5 per cent expansion for this quarter looks unlikely to be accurate.
The government of Europe's third-biggest economy may look to stimulate purchasing power by reducing taxes, Bloomberg reports.
Further analysis of the French economy could be supplied by Aranca, an end-to-end provider of on-demand, custom investment, business and economic research.
