BALLADUR SAYS ECONOMIC REBOUND TO TAKE YEARS
France's economic recovery will take
several years, Finance Minister Edouard Balladur told the
Economic and Social Council (CES), an advisory body composed of
industrialists, trade unionists and representatives of other
sectors of the French economy.
    "We will bear for long years to come the weight of the
choices made at the start of the oil crisis about 15 years ago,
unfavorable choices for industries but favorable for
households," he said without elaborating.
    "It is the cost of this choice that our industries are still
having to bear. We must improve their competitivity to regain
growth and employment," Balladur added.
    Balladur said the French budget deficit must be reduced to
below 70 billion francs from 129 billion forecast for 1987 but
he gave no time-scale. He has already announced his intention
of cutting the deficit to 100 billion francs in 1989.
    He said France's public debt, expected to grow by 10 pct
this year compared with 1,300 billion francs in 1986, must not
increase by more than between 60 to 70 billion francs a year.
    He reaffirmed that income from the government's sweeping
privatization program, seen to be at least 30 billion francs
for 1987, must be used mainly to pay off French state debt and
not to finance current needs.
                              
 Reuter
