Weekly brief

As France prepares to vote in the first round of presidential elections on Sunday, April 22, Socialist Party candidate François Hollande regained the lead in an Ifop poll released on Monday, April 16, showing the top contender edging past incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy with 28 percent of votes to 27 percent, la Libération, CNN, the Guardian and Reuters reported. Polls indicate that France will return to a leader from the left after 17 years of leaders from the right, though as the main candidates struggle to gain footing in a tough economic climate with unemployment rising, candidates on both extremes are also showing steady support in polls. Jean-Luc Mélénchon of the Left Party has 17 percent resulting from growing Communist support, and far-right National Front candidate Marine Le Pen has 16 percent, according the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.

 As the campaigning for the presidential elections enters its final days, the role of the European Central Bank has made its way into the top issues being debated. Socialist candidate François Hollande’s call for the renegotiation of the role of the EuroZone’s central bank was echoed by President Nicolas Sarkozy, inciting a strong reaction from Berlin, the Wall Street Journal and TF1 reported. After Sarkozy said in a rally on Sunday, April 15, that the role of the ECB, historically charged solely with the mandate to address price stability, should be expanded to include the support of economic growth, German Chancellor Angela Merkel quickly reminded Sarkozy of his November 2011 agreement not to follow through with 2007 campaign promises to seek reform to the ECB’s mandate, as covered by Reuters, Bloomberg, AFP and le Nouvel Observateur. 

 French gas and electric giant GDF Suez SA announced on Monday, April 16, that it was moving forward with the purchase of the 30 percent of International Power it did not already own for €8.4 billion, which will allow Europe’s largest utility, by market value, to expand into Latin America and Asia, the San Francisco Chronicle and les Echos reported. GDF Suez said they offered 418 pence per share for the buyout, expected to close in July, after International Power’s board rejected an offer of 380 pence per share two weeks ago, according to the Washington Post.

 French police arrested on Saturday, April 14, a 33-year-old man suspected of a murder on April 4 in the Parisian suburb of Essonne.  This was the fourth of a series of killings that began in November, the Chicago Tribune and TF1 reported. While the latest murder took place days after a series of shootings in and near Toulouse that left seven dead and were also carried out with a semi-automatic weapon while passing on a motorbike, authorities have ruled out any link between the murders in Essonne and those carried out by Al-Qaeda inspired Mohamed Merah, according to the Telegraph

The World Bank’s executive board selected American Jim Yong Kim on Monday, April 16, to succeed Robert Zoellick as president when the current president’s term expires in June, TF1 and CNN reported. Kim, the president of Dartmouth University, who was an unexpected nominee by President Barack Obama, was chosen over Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who had previously held the No. 2 position at the World Bank and whose nomination was the first to challenge the United States’ stronghold on the position, according to the AP and le Point.

Spanish Finance Minister Luis de Guindos confirmed on Monday, April 16, that Spain would likely follow up a 0.3-percent contraction for the fourth quarter of 2011 with another loss in the first quarter of 2012, indicating that for the second time since 2009, the nation will once again be in an official recession, Boursier and MSNBC reported. The news came as little surprise as Spain has been continuous cause for concern as debt has continued to plague Europe. Spanish 10-year bonds surpassed 6 percent this week amid projections that yields could continue to rise to the 7-percent level, according to Reuters and les Echos.

 The U.S. Commerce Department announced on Monday, April 16, that retail sales had risen 0.8 percent in March, far surpassing projections and following a one percent hike in February, les Echos and Bloomberg reported. While gains were seen in almost all sectors of the economy, the biggest increases were in sales of automobiles, electronics and appliances, building materials and clothing, according to the Wall Street Journal and TF1.

The Chinese Central Bank announced on Saturday, April 14, that it was widening the daily trading band, allowing the yuan to fluctuate by as much as one percentage point beginning on Monday, April 16, up from the 0.5 percent allowance determined in May 2007, Boursier and l’Express reported. In the first day of trading under the new rules, the yuan fell 0.19 percent against the dollar, as fears of European debt and uncertainty about Chinese growth led investors away from emerging currencies, according to the Economic Times.