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In March, exports totaled 36.5 billion euros and imports 42.22 billion, a shortfall of 5.7 billion euros, against 6.4 billion in February. This decline reflects the drop in energy imports. View of the port of Marseille

The trade deficit of France, which had widened substantially in February because of the cold wave had boosted energy imports fell in March to 5.721 billion euros, the Customs said Wednesday. "Trade interrupt their progress in March. The decline is more pronounced for imports after major energy purchases in February (cold snap), so that the trade deficit reduced by more than 500 million euros," explained Customs in a statement.

Exports totaled 36.491 billion euros and imports at 42.212 billion. "The exports of manufacturing industries are marking time, after their sharp increase earlier this year," commented Customs. Monthly data are seasonally adjusted and the number of working days. The deficit of 12 months completed end of March stood at 68.597 billion euros, a figure to compare the record reached 70.671 billion in calendar 2011, whichever is again revised by Customs.

The term fast cash does not refer to money that falls from the sky. It refers to the money obtained through a cash advance.

Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings have been recalled in fond memory of Francois Hollande Monday stating that the member's election to the presidency of Corrèze of the Republic n 'had no implication on the sovereign rating of France, in the short term.

Francois Hollande since Sunday is the new head of state, elected with 51.62% of the vote against the incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy.

S & P, which lowered a notch in January the French credit rating from AAA, the highest possible, to AA + coupled with a negative outlook, estimates there are at least three chance that the note against the subject of a further reduction this year or in 2013. 

"We will analyze the decisions of the French president and his new government, taking into account the results of parliamentary elections in June," said the rating agency said in a statement.

"The election of the candidate of the Socialist Party, Francois Hollande, President of the French Republic, has no implications for the AAA rating of France, currently in perspective negative ", for its part announced Fitch.

"However, his election victory marks an important change at the head of France and Europe. The new president faces the same challenges as its predecessor: the strengthening of fiscal credibility, improving the growth potential in the medium term France and the handling of the crisis in the euro area, "the text

. Fitch announced earlier this year not consider amending the note from France in 2012 but nothing prevents him to return to this position

. No one was immediately immediately reached Monday night at Moody's for a comment on France

. Francois Hollande has placed top priority European renegotiation of the treaty signed on budgetary discipline by March 25 of the 27 countries of the European Union in order to incorporate a component on growth. 

Meanwhile, the president plans a return to balanced budgets in 2017.

For its part, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, eager to pursue deficit reduction, on Monday reiterated its refusal to renegotiate the pact and posted its fiscal distrust vis-à-vis possible measures to support growth.

The rating agencies are concerned about several times of slippage in public finances in the euro area countries, while stressing that too restrictive budgetary measures were likely to weaken growth , itself considered essential to reducing deficits and debt. 

Francois Hollande announced that he would travel to Berlin very soon after taking office scheduled May 15

Lafarge announced Friday an increase in its turnover and its operating income in the first quarter thanks to emerging markets and improved pricing, allowing the world's leading cement to reduce its debt.

The group, which now generates 60% of its sales in emerging economies, achieved the first three months of the year sales up 5% to € 3.35 billion, slightly above the consensus reached by the editor of Reuters estimates from eight analysts who gave $ 3.3 billion.

Ebitda rose to its share of 8% to 516 million euros while operating profit rose 28% to 267 million. 

However, net income, group share, shows a loss of 44 million euros, against -29,000,000 a year earlier, reflecting restructuring charges corresponding in particular to the 500 job cuts engaged around the world as part of the reorganization of the group. Excluding these charges, Lafarge has emerged over the period with net income of 18 million euros.

"The group continues to anticipate an increased demand for cement, and maintains its estimate of market growth between 1% and 4% in 2012 compared to 2011," the group said in a statement .

"Emerging markets remain the main driver of demand growth (…) The prices should be up on the year 2012, and cost inflation more moderate e in 2011. "

CONTINUATION OF ASSET TRANSFERS

In the first quarter, net debt of Lafarge fell 13% year on year to 12.4 billion euros. One quarter to another, it is clear, however, up 3%, a trend linked "to normal seasonal variations in working capital (working capital needs)," said Lafarge.

The group's debt, inherited largely from the acquisition of Orascom in 2008, is still expected to decline "significantly" this year, without elaborating.

As part of its debt, Lafarge intends to limit to 800 million euros investment and reduce by at least 400 million euros in 2012 its costs. The group also maintained its target of over one billion euros of asset sales over the year, of which 71 million were made during the quarter.

Both activities are the subject of rumors of transfers, the plaster in North America, last active group in a trade which it is almost released last year, and cement in South Africa . The group must also achieve significant asset sales in Britain required by the Competition Authority to give its green light to the proposed joint venture between Lafarge and Anglo American.

"It is not impossible that these divestitures can be made in 2012," said the CEO of Lafarge, Bruno Lafont, during a teleconference.

The stock closed Thursday at 29.97 euros. Since the beginning of the year, the title took about 10%, after -42% in 2011.

After enduring their worst two weeks of the year, the U.S. stock markets should try to get back to basics and support the trend of the results to be published in burst from Monday.

Alcoa opened last Monday the new earnings season, reporting an unexpected benefit as investors anticipated a loss from the U.S. aluminum specialist.

In the wake of Alcoa, the few groups who have also published their quarterly in the vast majority pleasantly surprised: the approximately 32 companies listed on the S & P 500 , almost three quarters exceeded the consensus. 

But these ads have not had the desired effect on equity markets, the return on the center stage of the crisis of sovereign debt, illustrated by the difficulties encountered es by Spain to finance themselves, having prompted investors to take profits and to favor the least risky assets.

According to Thomson Reuters data, not less than 86 U.S. companies in the S & P 500 in turn deliver their quarterly results to stakeholders.

Among them are ten listed companies on the Dow Jones: Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, DuPont, Microsoft, Travelers Companies, Verizon, American Express, General Electric and McDonald's. 

Financials will be again this week closely followed the results delivered Friday by JPMorgan Chase. This week, are expected Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

The content of the figures however, will not only dictate the trend, investors keeping an eye on the developments on the forehead of European sovereign debt.

"The results are better than expected. The outlook is rather optimistic," said Jack Ablin of Harris Private Bank.

"Overall, the news is mostly good, but just a very poor information from Europe to forget all that," he said.

Friday, the U.S. stock markets have completed a second consecutive weekly decline. This correction was expected by many analysts after the 12% increase posted in the first quarter by the S & P 500.

The index, followed by most fund managers, however, remained close to its 50-day moving average.

"Technically, it was clear that there would be a correction," said Paul Mendelsohn.

"(…) How far will she? Remains to be seen. There is support in the region of 1,358 points and we turn around the 50-day moving average ….. ….

Sony announced Thursday the outlines of a recovery plan providing for the elimination of 10,000 jobs worldwide, representing 6% of its workforce, hoping to return to profit despite the difficulty ; s division of his television.

Led by its new chief executive Kazuo Hirai, the Japanese manufacturer of consumer electronics said he wanted to strengthen its business in mobile telephony, digital imaging and gaming while seeking strategic investments in medical equipment and batteries for electric vehicles.

Sony suffers from declining demand for its televisions to compete more innovative rivals such as Apple or the American South Korea's Samsung Electronics. 

"We heard the many voices calling for change of investors," said Kazuo Hirai, the new boss at a crowd of journalists gathered at Sony headquarters in Tokyo.

"Sony will change," he promised, adding that he intended to become a key player in the global market for mobile telephony.

Kazuo Hirai, who took office as head of Sony last month, said the group aimed for a total turnover of 8,500 billion yen (80 billion euros) in fiscal 2014 – 2015 and an operating margin of over 5%.

Eventually, Sony also hopes to increase to 100 billion yen in sales in the medical field, has indicated Kazuo Hirai. 

In a statement released before the press conference, Sony said, anticipating a restructuring charge of approximately 75 billion yen (705 million) in fiscal year which ends March 31, 2013 .

The group intends to reduce its fixed costs 60% and 30% of its operating costs in televisions in 2013-2014 compared to this year.

Prior to these announcements, action Sony closed up 0.86% to 1,528 yen in Tokyo Stock Exchange. The Group's market capitalization has shrunk by almost 20% over the last month. Samsung is now ten times, while Apple – some Sony executives were considering buying in the early 90s – now represents 30 times its market capitalization.

Sony, like its Japanese rivals Sharp and Panasonic, has suffered in recent years a decline in demand for televisions, fierce competition and competitiveness weighed down by the strong yen.

The group said Tuesday forecast a record annual net loss of 520 billion yen (4.88 billion euros) for its 2011-2012 fiscal year, which is more than double the expected loss in February.

With the exception of Frankfurt, the main European stock markets ended slightly higher Thursday, but on the whole a week cut short due to Easter weekend extended, they show a marked decline, with such a decline of 3.04% for the CAC 40 in Paris, mainly because of concerns about the financial situation of Spain.

In Paris the CAC 40 closed up 0.19% (6.34 points) on the day at 3319.81 points. The UK FTSE gained 0.35% while the German Dax has sold 0.13%. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index took 0.12%.

The exchanges were volatile throughout the session, which ultimately resulted in a slight gain thanks to a surge in mining stocks, which sector index jumped 1.82%, by far the best performance of the session, before the oil (0.81%).

The resilience of these compartments highly cyclical, which had suffered heavy losses during the previous two sessions, is partly explained by the anticipation of positive numbers in employment to United States.

"The markets are closed tomorrow, so if you are an investor and you think that this statistic will be better than expected, then you buy. This indicator should reflect a further improvement in the labor market in the U.S. and the good employment figures in recent months have helped fuel the stock market rally in progress, "said a broker based in ; London

. Due Friday, all major stock exchanges, except for the Asian markets will be closed Friday and some (Euronext, London, Frankfurt , Madrid, Zurich and Hong Kong among others) will not reopen until Tuesday due to Easter Monday

. This long weekend will not prevent chera, however, the U.S. Department of Labor to publish Friday's monthly employment figures, always eagerly awaited by investors

. Economists polled by Reuters expect March to 203,000 jobs created outside the agricultural sector from 227,000 in February. 

A Spanish Treasury auction Wednesday marked by weak demand and yields to rise, despite the austerity budget presented by Madrid, has revived tensions over the debts of pe riphériques the euro area and fueled a movement of flight to quality benefiting in particular German bunds.

To questions from investors on the viability of public accounts of some countries in the euro area was added Thursday to the disappointment of indicators (manufacturing in Germany and Britain) worse than expected, underlining the weakness of activity in Europe. 

Even if they did not quite meet the expectations of economists, weekly jobless claims in the U.S., touching a low of nearly four years, illustrate the gap between the two sides of the Atlantic in terms of conditions.

The unwritten rule in the United States reserving the presidency of the World Bank is questioning Friday after the appointment of a candidate by three emerging countries of Africa, paving the way the first truly contested election since the primary funder of developing countries.

Angola, Nigeria and South Africa supported the nomination of the Nigerian Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a respected economist and diplomat, to succeed the American Robert Zoellick, who is retiring in June 

"This designation stems from the belief that the executive appointments of the World Bank and its sister institution the International Monetary Fund, should be based on merit, open and transparent "say the three states in a statement.

Washington must nominate its candidate on Friday, which will remain the favorite for the position despite the African initiative: the U.S. president traditionally the World Bank since the inception of it the day after World War II, while the general direction of the IMF amounts to a European.

Brazil, meanwhile, would defend the candidacy of former Colombian Minister of Finance, Jose Antonio Ocampo, but can not do without the support of Colombia, as now seems likely. 

Bogota has indeed said Thursday its preferred candidate for the presidency of the International Labour Organization (ILO), recalling that a Colombian already held the presidency of the Inter-im ; American Development.

Russia, she refrained from supporting a candidate who is not American and pleaded for a greater role for emerging leaders in the organs of international financial institutions.

DECISION BEFORE APRIL 21

The Board of Directors of the World Bank, the United States holds the largest number of voting rights and can expect support from European countries and Japan. Africa occupies only three of 25 board seats.

The secret of the candidate that Washington will support far remains guarded. And Nancy Birdsall, who chairs the Center for Global Development in Washington, it is precisely the delay in the appointment of the American candidate who has paved the way for his rivals.

"For the first time, there is competition, or at least it seems at first glance that there is serious competition. And the only way for this to be open, merit-based and transparent, is that there is competition, "she said

.

Sources close to the Obama administration have said the list of possible candidates include Susan Rice, U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Indra Nooyi, the Director General eral of PepsiCo, born in India, Senator John Kerry and Lawrence Summers, former economic advisor to President

. A name Additional emerged in recent days: that Laura Tyson, professor at the University of California at Berkeley and a specialist in international trade and competitiveness …….

.. The State Department has ruled that Hillary Clinton will be leading the World Bank but it remains a possible candidate in the eyes of some observers. 

The deadline for applications is 18:00 Washington time (2200 GMT). The board must then publish a list of three candidates and make a final choice before the general meetings of the IMF and World Bank, April 21.

The country should emerge from recession in 2013, but its growth will be zero this year after a fourth year of heavy contraction in GDP. Greece is not yet out of the woods.

Greece continues its transformation and intends to turn its back on the crisis. The rescue plan reassured the markets, so that rating agencies could in a few weeks, increasing the Notes for the country's debt. On a political level, the lines also move. Evangelos Venizelos – the only candidate for the leadership of the Greek socialist PASOK – Sunday night announced his election as party leader, succeeding George Papandreou.

Side of the economy, however, the changes are slower. Greece will return to growth "in less than two years" and is determined to avoid a new debt restructuring and exit from the euro, the Greek Prime Minister assures Lucas Papademos in an interview with the Financial Times on Monday.

"I am convinced that we made more than half way to economic recovery, even if the fiscal consolidation process will take longer. Positive growth rates should be achieved by less than two years," says Greek ruler business daily. He said "great silent majority" of the Greek people will do anything to stay in the euro area, despite the almost daily demonstrations against the drastic program of austerity adopted by Athens under pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union.

The IMF once again revised downward its forecast last week for the Mediterranean countries: according to the institution, Greece should emerge from recession in 2013, but its growth will be zero this year after a heavy fourth year of contraction GDP, from 4.8% in 2012. Despite the crisis, "we will do whatever is necessary to ensure that it was the last Greek sovereign debt restructuring," said Mr. also Papademos Monday.

A new report from the Troika of its creditors (EU, European Central Bank and IMF) released last week, Greece will have to make further budgetary adjustment efforts in the next two years to achieve the goals set in the second exchange assistance plan.

Greece on 12 March an exchange of unprecedented debt, the first step in the restructuring of its heavy liabilities budget, with a target return on financial markets in 2015. This restructuring, which should remove a total of some 105 billion euros of debt held by private creditors is to shrink the country's total debt at 120.5% of GDP by 2020, against 160% of GDP at present (more 350 billion euros).

Greece has taken all necessary legislative measures to obtain a second plan to assist countries in the area, said Thursday the Eurogroup President Jean- Claude Juncker, adding that the finance ministers were now waiting the finalization of the debt exchange between Athens and its private creditors.

"All laws necessary (…) have been adopted and some decrees outstanding should be soon," said Jean-Claude Juncker, after a meeting of finance ministers from the euro area.

He has listed the legal texts relating to fiscal consolidation, to pension reform, regulation of the financial sector or structural reforms. 

"This will allow the adjustment effort of Greece to regain momentum, which – coupled with a rigorous implementation of the package of measures defined under the new plan – is the foundation to restore the public finances and the economy of Greece on a sustainable path. "

That said, before the finance ministers of the euro area give their green light defines the second aid plan – 130 billion euros – to Greece, the program debt exchange between Athens and its private creditors must be finalized. 

This program, which opened February 24 and scheduled to end on March 8, should see the private creditors exchange more than 200 billion euros of Greek sovereign debt against new obligations representing half of this amount.

"The Eurogroup reaffirms that a successful debt exchange, with high turnout, and a final evaluation of all the positive steps already taken are the conditions for disbursement of funds under the EFSF second aid plan, "added Jean-Claude Juncker.

"As a result, the Eurogroup hopes high participation of private sector in the debt swap."

The agency Fitch upgraded the credit rating Friday from Iceland to BBB-BB + cons, welcoming the country's progress in restoring macroeconomic stability after the financial plunge of 2008.

Note Reykjavik thus leaves the speculative grade and is endowed by Fitch with a stable outlook.

"The restoration of long-term sovereign rating of Iceland investment grade reflects progress in restoring macroeconomic stability, implementing the re ; structural forms and restore the solvency of the country after the financial and monetary crisis of 2008, "Fitch wrote in a statement. 

In late 2008, the three main Icelandic banks collapsed under the weight of their debts accumulated during a decade of aggressive expansion abroad. Their fall has plunged the Icelandic economy, which had to call using the International Monetary Fund.

Relatively untouched by the debt crisis of the euro area, it is not, Iceland is expected to grow by 2% to 2.5% in 2012-2013, Fitch believes.

The rating agency stresses, however, that private debt remains high, that of households above 200% of salary available and the business up to 210% of GDP.

Iceland is rated BBB-by Standard & Poor's and Baa3 by Moody's. His outlook is stable from S & P, but negative by Moody's.