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France speeds up older retirement
A new wave of 2012 budget saving measures designed to help France meet its deficit reduction targets will include speeding up its higher retirement age. Last week, France lowered its growth projections for next year to one per cent from 1.7 per cent – raising the need for further belt-tightening measures by the centre-right government of President Nicolas Sarkozy. That saving plan, to be announced today, will include accelerating the transition to the retirement age of 62 from 60 in either 2016 or 2017, instead of 2018, Les Echos newspaper reported on its website yesterday.