Five years of growth ruined (Le Figaro)

“People who think that French people can take five weeks of holidays while retiring five years before everybody are very arrogant !”, Daniel Bouton declares in an interview published by Le Figaro. The CEO of the Société Générale answers a question about the thorny case of pensions and notices that his generation has not had the courage of taking necessary measures to avoid the debt slipping to younger people. Under the title "La France a gâché 5 années de croissance (France has ruined 5 years of growth), Daniel Bouton also talks about the world economic growth (he is relatively optimistic), about unemployment increasing in France, about the TMT sector crisis, about the future of online banking, etc.

The meaning of the five years of growth ruined by France ? For Daniel Bouton, the country hasn’t take enough advantage of this growth to reduce budget deficits, to improve productivity of the public service, to reform public and private pensions, while the three years of productivity gains have been consumed by the implementation of the 35 hours law. This explains why we have a little right to mistake now.