Economic growth

Promises, promises... French President François Hollande had made twin promises for this year: he would bring France's budget deficit under 3% of GDP and he would stop the unrelenting rise in unemployment by the end of the year. The deficit target has now officially been missed, and the unemployment pledge seems shakier by the day.

To create jobs, the French may have to overcome an age-old adversity to risk. Be it the youth who aspire to a civil service job or the elites who prefer to work for a major corporation than chance it with a start-up, François Picard’s panel looks at how that mindset is being challenged.

It was a sacred cow, the holy grail. France's budget deficit would not, repeat not, exceed 3% of its GDP. It was etched in stone; the Socialist government had taken drastic measures to cut the deficit down to that magic number. But the financial markets, the IMF, the EU, neighbouring countries and probably the average French person knew that this was mission impossible due to sluggish growth. This week, the government finally admitted the sad truth.

Once again, the World Bank has cut its growth projections. The outlook is gloomy for developed economies in general, and the eurozone in particular. And how will developing countries fare in 2013? Markus Karlsson talks to the lead author of the World Bank's Global Economic Prospects, Andrew Burns.