Gregory Viscusi, Helene Fouquet and Mark Deen
Bloomberg Businessweek
July 5, 2012

France’s two-week-old Socialist government unveiled 7.2 billion euros ($9 billion) of tax increases to meet deficit-reduction goals and avoid bond-market punishment.

The 2012 measures, approved at a Cabinet meeting today, presage even larger tax increases and spending cuts next year in an economy that’s barely expanding.

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“We face an extremely difficult financial and economic situation,” Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said at a press conference today in Paris. “The wealthiest households, the big companies, will be asked to contribute. In 2012 and 2013, the effort will be particularly large.”

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