Fearing coronavirus recession, France weighs nationalisation

France's finance minister said Tuesday that he was willing to nationalise large companies to protect m from bankruptcy, while warning that country faces recession this year as coronavirus epidemic sinks ecomy.

Bru Le Maire anunced a 45 billion euro (USD 50 billion) aid pack to help businesses and employees cope with escalating health crisis.

"I will t hesitate to use any means at my disposal to protect large French enterprises," minister said during a conference call with journalists.

"This can be through capital injections or stake purchases. I can even use term nationalisation if necessary," he said.

Le Maire earlier described struggle against coronavirus pandemic as an "ecomic and financial war." "It will be lengthy, it will be violent... this war will require us to mobilise all our forces," he told RTL rio.

ditional ecomic support measures will be anunced shortly, he said, and will be based "on a growth forecast of minus one per cent, that is to say negative growth." France's national debt will exceed 100 per cent of GDP this year, he ded, well above European Union's guidelines of t more than 60 per cent.

France's markets regulator also moved Tuesday to ban short-selling in 92 stocks for day in a bid to tame fierce volatility on financial markets as nervous investors try to assess virus' ecomic toll.

Short-selling involves borrowing shares to sell m, effectively betting ir price will fall so y can be bought back cheaper, allowing investor to pocket difference.

practice can put immense downward pressure on prices at times when buyer interest is virtually n-existent.

France's Financial Markets Authority (AMF) said that "taking into account significant losses in recent days on financial markets" it h decided "an urgent step" was needed.

short-selling ban would last all day Tuesday for stocks especially hard hit when a global sell-off saw Wall Street plunge nearly 13 per cent on Monday.

Le Maire said he was prepared to impose a short-selling ban of up to a month if necessary.

Paris market, like its European peers, did slightly better in early tre Tuesday, gaining 4.0 per cent, helped in part by short-selling ban, dealers said.

By mid-morning, however, gains were being eroded as virus worries once again came to fore. 

Im Source: PTI