Valls's difficult climb

摘要

It may be fragile, but recovery seems at last to be under way in Europe, five years after the onset of its worst-ever post-war recession. In the first quarter of 2014, gdp in the euro zone expanded by 0.9% over a year earlier, and by 2.3% in Germany; it grew by 3.1% in Britain, which is outside the single-currency area. In the second quarter, the Markit purchasing-managers' index for the euro zone reached its highest level for three years. Output has now risen for 12 months in a row. Yet amid all these signs of a belated upturn, as the Markit index cruelly revealed, there was one obvious and awkward weak link: France, the euro zone's second-biggest economy.