France unveils tough austerity plan

"The [French] recovery has already ground to a halt and it's sliding back into a recession," he said. "That is not the time that any government should be cutting spending. All that risks doing is pushing the economy further into recession," said Simon Tilford, chief economist at the CER.
The austerity measures come as neighboring Italy threatens to become the latest victim of the spreading eurozone crisis. "It's not beyond the realms of possibility that in a few months time France could find itself in a similar position to the one in which Italy finds itself now," said Tilford.