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France
Jobless figures slow, bank denies 10 bn euro loss
Article published on the 2009-04-27 Latest update 2009-04-27 16:33 TU
French Minister of the Economy, Industry and Employment Christine Lagarde
(Photo: Reuters)
France's Economy Minister, Christine Lagarde, said on Monday that between 60,000 and 70,00 people in France became unemployed in the month of March. This is a reduction on the almost 80,000 workers who had lost their jobs in February and the 90,000 people out of work in January.
Unemployment in France now sits at just over eight per cent, but rises to 21.2 per cent for the under-25 age group.
Also on Monday the French bank Société Générale denied press reports that it stood to lose up to ten billion euros because of so-called "toxic assets".
The newspaper Libération reported in its Monday edition that a "fiasco of up to 5 billion euros" was imminent and that the final cost to the bank from the financial crisis could reach ten billion euros.
The bank issued a formal denial of the newspaper report, saying that the paper had misunderstood the figures.
This comes after losses of almost five billion euros in 2007, which have been blamed on the trader Jerôme Kerviel.
 Societe Generale denies losses of up to 10 bln euros |
