France officially slipped into a triple-dip recession today — on the first anniversary of socialist president François Hollande being sworn in.
With the country suffering record unemployment, Mr Hollande has become the most unpopular president in the history of the Fifth Republic.
France’s economy has failed to grow at all during Mr Hollande’s first year in office and was last in recession at the beginning of last year.
A proposed top income tax rate of 75 per cent has led to entrepreneurs and stars including actor Gerard Depardieu, leave the country. Budget minister Jeremy Cahuzac was also forced to resign and now faces a criminal prosecution for allegedly using a secret Swiss bank account to avoid taxes.
Mr Cahuzac had been specifically charged by Mr Hollande with clamping down on tax fraud.
Now all opinion polls reveal that Mr Hollande is even more unpopular than Nicolas Sarkozy — the Right- winger he replaced and who now faces a range of corruption charges.
New German growth figures showed its economy, the strongest in the eurozone, grew by 0.1 per cent in the first quarter of the year.