This is the first statement by a senior European official confirming the existence of such plans.

Speculation about the development and content of such projects are fed from the Greek elections of May 6, but their existence had not previously confirmed e.

"There is one and a half, the risk of domino effect could have existed," said Karel De Gucht Belgian Flemish daily De Standaard. 

"But today there are, both within the European Central Bank and European Commission services working in emergency scenarios where the Gre it can not. "

Axa has confirmed the end of September to have committed "a strategic review" for the national champion of private equity but talks with potential buyers seem to have since stalled. (And see)

"A priori the outcome and the results of this strategic review, it is hoped that this will be completed before the end of the year," said Chief Financial Officer Gerald Harlin at a conference call to discuss the indicators of activity of the group for the first three months of the year.

The fate of this subsidiary represents some economic issue for France, say some observers.

Axa Private Equity is indeed a major investor in the territory and its French base becomes even more desirable for new financial rules could scarce investment capital in companies. 

The essential part of its business, the French insurance giant announced a turnover up 0.8% to 28.056 billion euros for the first quarter.

The growth in business damage (3.3% to 9.973 billion euros) offset the virtual stagnation of the life segment and Savings (-0.2% to 15.956 billion of euros) and a lower turnover in the management of assets (-9.6% to 827 million euros).

Gérald Harlin said these results were in line with the strategic plan for 2015 presented by Axa last year.

This plan would redeploy some capital to the group of high-growth markets and, more generally, to focus on margins and volumes. 

The CFO also said that the situation in Greece and the euro area was creating a climate of "volatility" in financial markets but in Axa took full account.

"It positions itself especially on segments that are least sensitive (…). This is why we are fast growing activity on the protection, welfare," at he said.

He nevertheless admitted that the life insurance segment continued to suffer from macroeconomic conditions in Europe.

"We're in a world of low interest rates and are done with," he concluded.

The group recorded a 28% increase in sales to 35.7 billion euros, higher than the 30.14 billion euros predicted by Thomson Reuters SmartEstimates.

The group said last week it had earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of approximately 3.8 billion euros, and net current of about 1.7 billion.

"These figures are not spectacular, but they are good," said one trader. The action was reported up 0.9% in transactions before trading.

The turnover of the trading subsidiary of the group rose 37% to 27.5 billion euros while the production of renewable energy generated sales up 7% to 617 million.

Since the beginning of the year, as E.ON has lost over 6%, impacted partly by its heavy exposure to nuclear power, while its main competitor RWE gained 18%.

The UK has not escaped the downturn. Its economy has officially fallen into recession earlier this year following a contraction of its economy for the second consecutive quarter, a surprise for analysts and bad news for the government of David Cameron.

According to one official estimate released Wednesday, the British economy shrank by 0.2% in the first quarter of 2012, after falling 0.3% last quarter. The country is thus technically back in recession, which was released in late 2009 after five straight quarters of decline in activity during the financial crisis.  

Despite very mixed economic indicators, most analysts were betting on a slight rise of 0.1% of GDP, which would have avoided the country to be in the same situation as the states of the eurozone such as Spain or Italy, also entered into a recession.

This performance-up against Prime Minister David Cameron in a difficult position: it should indeed revive criticisms about the draconian austerity policies of his government by the opposition Labor Party accused of having "killed growth" in the name of a struggle against deficits.

The pound is distributed sharply lower against the euro and the dollar after the announcement of the contraction of the UK economy. The London Stock Exchange remained, however, directed slightly up gaining 0.44% to 5,734,67 points to 0900 GMT.

It's time for optimism for international trade. This is the conclusion of the study HSBC Global Connections: Trade Forecast (February 2012), which provides a faster growth of international trade from 2014, one year earlier than expected, according to previous analyzes. Between 2014 and 2026, world trade is expected to grow by 86%. Its annual growth is estimated at 3.8% until 2017, then mark a sharper acceleration beyond, with an annual growth of 6.2% from 2017 to 2021.

The biggest concern now trade oil, gas, petrochemical, automotive and electronic goods and equipment. But things are changing. With the threat of global warming and the demand for competitiveness, companies must now be closer to markets where they want to trade. This new situation allows to identify new growth areas. Here are the main:

– Electric power: all regions of the world are now seeking to develop non-fossil energy: nuclear, hydroelectric, solar, wind …

– Containers & Packaging: crates, boxes, and all objects to package and transport goods. This highly competitive industry is expected to grow particularly strong in America (nearly 10% annually over the next five years in Latin America and 8.9% in North America).

– Metallurgy: prepared binders for foundry. The annual growth forecast for this sector should be 8.8% in the next five years.

– Coal: coal and pellets. Demand is high worldwide, and especially in China which produces half the world's coal, but who is also the first consumer.  

– Processed food: demand for more sophisticated food is high everywhere in the world.

– Electrical Control Systems: the development of new electrical power sources to the emergence of demand control systems and automatic control, especially in Asia, Europe and North America.

– Infrastructure: The sector is large, since the production of metal bars to the research services and consulting. This sector, vital for global economic growth, is expected to grow 110% in the next 15 years.

The Paris Stock Exchange closed sharply lower Friday amid concerns persist about the situation in Spain and Italy, and while the slowdown in Chinese growth is stronger than expected. The CAC 40 gave 2.47%, passing under the 3200 points to 3189.09 points, in a trade volume of 3.697 billion euros.

On other European markets, Frankfurt fell 2.36% and 1.03% of London. The Eurostoxx 50 index lost 2.58% on its side. "We broke a very important technical level, that of 3200 points, this does not bode well. We will start next week in very bad disposition, "warned Frederic Rozier, manager of equities at Messchaert Private Banking Growth Slows

.

The Chinese trend has been sealed, early interactions, confirmed by the slowing of Chinese growth, which reached its lowest level in almost three years (+8.1% yoy in the first quarter). "Investors not expect a downturn as fast. It should be remembered that any slowdown in China has a strong impact on the global economy, "said Mr. Rozier. However, for Renaud Murail at Barclays Bourse," it is almost certain that stakeholders would not reacted so negatively to this statistic a few weeks ago. Currently, less bad news is amplified. "  

The climate has been sealed by the blood of net borrowing rate of Italy and Spain in the bond market, yields on 10 year Spanish flirting again with 6%. Rome suffered a further decline in industrial production in February, while economists were betting on a rise, while the debt of Spanish banks to the ECB in March smashed the record already history for the previous month. "This suggests two disturbing elements: access not only of the Spanish market remains difficult, but they still have a strong need for short-term liquidity," said Alexandre Baradez at Saxo Bank.

The bank attacked very

The banking sector in the fourth largest economy in the euro area of ​​particular concern for investors because it is very exposed to the real estate market in the doldrums in the country. In this context, anxiety, low morale of U.S. households has compounded the disappointment of stakeholders.

As for values, the banking sector has been particularly attacked, Societe Generale yielding 5.79% to 17.80 euros, BNP Paribas 5.22% to 30.40 euros and Credit Agricole 5.08% to 3.91 euros. More cyclical stocks have suffered heavily from the slowdown in China, the image of Peugeot (-5.15% to 9.84 euros), Lafarge (-4.94% to 30.88 euros) or Vinci (-4 , 21% to 34.83 euros). L'Oreal was the only value of the CAC 40 close to achieving in the green (1.15% to 92.14 euros) after the beginning of 2012 found "promising" with sales up sharply in the first quarter.

Capgemini (-5.12% to 29.92 euros) suffered from lower sales forecasts for 2012-2013 the number two Indian IT Infosys Technologies. Atos took to 2.31% to 44.37 euros, while a note from Morgan Stanley suggests the establishment of "strategic options" for the group if the title is still low. Stallergenes has granted 3.34% to 42.66 euros after confirming its annual growth target following an increase of 7% of its turnover for the first quarter. Finally, Gold by Gold unscrewed from 6.01% to 6.72 euros in its first day of trading on Euronext Paris.

This amount far exceeds the previous record of 49.1 billion borrowed in a month reached in August 2010, before Lisbon accepts a plan to help the IMF and the European Uni ; enemies.

According to Teresa Gil Pinheiro, chief economist at Banco BPI, the increase recorded in March was partly explained by the strong participation of Portuguese banks for refinancing proposed by the European Central Bank.

In December and February, she put on the market a total of over 1,000 billion euros. 

This strong growth also reflects the reluctance of banks in the euro area, who are reluctant to lend to each other.

The IMF seeks to double its war chest through raising $ 600 billion of new resources to help countries struggling with the fallout from the debt crisis in the euro area.

But most G20 countries have said that before they do inject money into the IMF, the euro area was first put more money to solve the crisis of sovereign debt.

This was done on Friday finance ministers of 17 countries in the euro area in agreeing to carry 500 to 700 billion combined capacity of two rescue fund. 

"It is important to ensure that the IMF has sufficient resources to fulfill its systemic role in the global economy and yesterday's agreement within the Eurogroup (…) is very important in this regard, "he told reporters the Danish Minister of Economy Vestager Margrethe, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.

Finance ministers and central bank governors of the G20 countries must discuss an increase in IMF resources on April 22 in Washington.

"It's time to increase IMF resources. It is in the interest of all countries, the focus is on Europe, but it is very important to recognize that there are also vulnerabilities in other parts of the globe, "added Minister

." I think and hope – and this is to How we work – we will reach an agreement in April, "she said

." We Europeans, we can get to re ; unions spring the Washington sense of accomplishment ", for his part said Jörg Asmussen, Executive Board Member of the European Central Bank

… Five …… major emerging countries, said the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), however, have said they would support an increase if they were accorded a more important within the IMF. 

The euro area has already said it would contribute € 150 billion more resources to the IMF. The Czech Republic will contribute 1.5 billion euros, 5.3 billion of Denmark, Poland and Sweden 6.3 billion to 6.9 billion euros.

"The EU calls on other G20 countries and financially strong IMF members to contribute to this effort," we read in a paper for the Washington meeting.

Widely criticized for its many investments in France, Qatar has decided to postpone until after the elections in France to launch a controversial investment fund of 50 million euros to help commuters, it was elected officials learned of Diversity, confirming a report in figaro.fr.

The National Association of Elected Local Diversity (Aneld), who obtained this commitment after a mission to Qatar where she was received by the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, "hoped that this initiative is not exploited by political parties, "said its president Kamal Hamza, alderman (UMP) in Courneuve (Seine-Saint-Denis). "We want this to happen in the healing and not in controversy," he told AFP while the Qatari initiative has been criticized, including by Marine Le Pen.

"There is a very strong influence of foreign countries wishing development of Muslim fundamentalism and I wonder very strongly the bonds of friendship between Nicolas Sarkozy (French President) and the Emir of Qatar that has been allowed to invest 50 million euros in the French suburbs, "said the president of the National Front. Saturday, a few hundred young activists identity of "Apache Project" showed Place de l'Opera in Paris against "the acquisition of France by Qatar." For its part, the interior minister, Claude Gueant, found the initative as "salutary effort since there is no particular requirement of any kind".  

The emirate's ambassador in Paris, Mohamed Al-Kuwari Jahan, announced in December the fund of 50 million euros to finance economic projects by residents of the suburbs of France, explaining that s 'was not "charity" but of establishing partnerships in projects "serious" and "solid". A commission of experts should be established to evaluate the projects.

More generally, the tiny emirate is a privileged economic and financial partner of France. He just bought 1% of LVMH, and 2% of Total has increased to 12.8% its stake in Lagardere.

The CEO of specialist payment terminals, Philippe Lazare, told Reuters detect "significant room for improvement" in Southeast Asia, where it is to affû ; t acquisitions.

"The past year has confirmed that emerging markets are really the primary drivers of growth and the business model with an increasing share of our service activities and transactions (compared to) our terminal activities is a strategy that works, "he argued in an interview. 

Ingenico had to rethink its strategy last year after renouncing buy U.S. assets of Hypercom as a result of a decision of the department improve Rican Justice to initiate an antitrust action.

In the U.S., where the group's clients include distribution groups Wal-Mart and Home Depot, Ingenico expects much of the ongoing transition of the United States to smart cards, lead to a prompt Renewal of the terminal stores.

Ingenico, which counts among its competitors Gemalto, First Data and Heartland Payment Systems, is also betting on the transaction management services and maintenance of payment terminals, for not having to rely on its core business , manufacture and sale of terminals. 

This service activity should represent 40% of turnover next year as against 32% today, said Philippe Lazare.

Ingenico announced last month reaching for the first time in 2011 the symbolic threshold of one billion euros in revenue, driven by the dynamism of emerging countries.

For 2012, the group said it expected growth of over 8% on a comparable basis of its revenues and an EBITDA margin of greater than or equal to 18.3% .

The action, which exceeded 85 euros at the height of the dotcom bubble, touched a low of 4.6 euros in 2003. The title has turned the corner since 2009 and was up 28% since the beginning of the year at nearly 36 euros.

Ingenico, whose biggest shareholder is the supplier of defense and security Safran, in 2010 had rejected an offer to 28 euros per share of U.S. conglomerate Danaher, but Philippe Lazare said his group left for sale. At the right price.

"Clearly, society has been widely appreciated since this offer," he said. "We will continue to strengthen our balance sheet and strategy and make acquisitions to grow our relevant value. After, if someone wants to buy us one day, he will be welcome provided that it will put the price ".